


Alternate Realities Vol 7 - Endings and Beginnings - REFORMATTED

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [3]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 53
Words: 43,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More trips to America, a trip to India for one of the family and some unexpected fallout.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Mattie wakes to find Leo's side of the bed empty and cold. She looks at the ceiling and talks to the empty room. "Thank frig I don't do a nine to five and need to get a train somewhere at an ungodly hour."

She grabs her phone and looks at the calendar. There were a few reminders to get a letter out to a London charity that helped mentor teenagers, requests for her to talk at dinner functions to reply to, but most important of all take her sister shopping after school. Thursday. Almost the weekend. Not that any day felt that much different to another. Just as she thinks about late breakfast and goes to put the phone down it rings, an international call with a prefix she recognised. "Hello? Ha.."

It was, he interrupts and talks at speed, sounds stressed, "Mattie! It's me, can't talk long in case they pattern match my voice and start a trace. I'm in hiding. They did a stock check, found a L series core frame missing."

"I thought you.."

"The L series was supposed to be for the military, I, um, borrowed one. The mafia have taken over Persona in India and.."

"Which Maf.."

"Indian, Wiki it. I managed to get the system doing thousands of copies of Matia and me before I legged it, I'm walking like a synth, hide in plain sight stuff, but someone's picking them off. Matia was stolen two mon.." the call ends abruptly.

"Two months ago? Shit! That answers one question, no way am I stepping foot in India at the moment!" She tries to return the call but gets a tone to say it's no longer on the network. "Frigging hell universe, give me a frigging break for FIVE FRIGGING MINUTES!"

Downstairs she finds a postcard on the mat, shuffles into the kitchen to see Peggy and Leo at the table, her cold breakfast waiting. "I don't fancy eggs anymore, I've done them to death." inside the cupboard she finds the jams. "Apricot, that will do nicely."

Leo sticks a fork in his, gives a slight smile, "You said you'd be down then fell asleep again didn't you."

"Did I?"

"Sleep talking again?"

"Sounds like it. One nice bit of news, a postcard from the Craig family." she reads the message on the back and smiles briefly, "She's at Universal Studios with her husband and the kids."

"Who?"

"Joan, the lady with the damaged back, introduced us to Dr Fitz?"

"Ah! Joan, Clara and Peter. Did we ever learn what her husband's name was?"

Mattie peers at the squiggles at the bottom, "No, still no idea. Maybe he's a GP, they've got a reputation for bad handwriting."

Peggy puts a hand out and is given the card, "I've seen lots of signatures, I think that's a Richard. R drunk spider d. Definitely not Ronald as the spider usually finishes walking north before he's got all the ink off his foot to make a rough L shape." it gets a hint of a smile from Mattie. She watches Mattie over the rim of her coffee mug, reads the underlying expression that keeps returning. "We could hear you shouting, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Matilda Elsta-Hawkins, I may no longer be president of our women's circle but I'm still their best people watcher. You know better than to lie to me. Your face, voice and how you move say things aren't right."

Mattie sits down with the jam and a tea spoon, sighs, drops her shoulders and pulls an unhappy face. "I got a call from Harun. Somethings going on in India. It might explain what happened to Scarlett in Vegas." she pours a drink from the jug on the table, "I think she should stay in the UK for a while. Jimmy and Jenny too unless he and his wife have a very good reason to return to America."

Leo puts down his loaded fork, "What's happened?"

Mattie recounts the call, how it had ended abruptly. She gets her phone from her dressing-gown pocket and starts their app, "Remember when one of the guys posted this screen grab from the video?" she shows the picture. "It was shortly before everyone gathered on stage." she swipes up, "It got a comment that I didn't think twice about at the time." the phone is passed to Leo.

"I remember the screen grab, that caused some concern. 'You don't get more HUMAN than that 

"I think the sniper was US special forces. They'd probably tracked Scarlett being shipped out of India, thought she was trying to work her way into the US military."

Peggy frowns, "Isn't that a bit far fetched?"

"Is it? With everyone I've met? Compared to say, Leo's father making sentient synths? All the soldiers from privates to high ranking officers? The audience may have judged and executed the sniper in a split second, but there's not been a single mention of the word terrorist, well, not from them. I think everything went quiet on our chat as they'd come to the horrible conclusion that they'd taken down one of their own. And human was written in capital letters, I think Craig was trying to ensure the bullet didn't come my way."

"Which would mean Craig was special forces too, in on it?"

"It would."

"Didn't he get to meet Scarlett?"

"No, Jimmy was done by then."

Peggy puts down her drink, doesn't look convinced, "I've seen plenty movies in my years, wouldn't they be using private secure radio rather than your app? Doing so is a bit too open surely?"

Leo shakes his head, "Nobody could get a phone signal in there, I think they deliberately jammed a number of wavelengths to stop phones ringing and distracting performers. We all had a WiFi connection after the performance because of the network links Danny had set up."

Mattie takes a selfie, adding the text, 'Your favourite HUMAN is back in the UK and missing you all, anyone in need of a chat?'

Leo's phone chimes and he reads the text against the photo, "Going fishing are you?"

"Yeah, I want to know more."

There's a noise as the kitchen door handle is jiggled.

"Hang on Teeny!" Mattie gets up and unlocks the door. "Aren't you supposed to be leaving for school?"

"Yes, I just wanted to ask if Leo can make me another camera headband. Mrs Smith says we're dissecting bulls eyeballs in a few days," she grins, "good job that song of Peter's isn't real, otherwise I might have dissected my future prince last year!" she hears Laura calling from the garden, "Got to go! Thanks Leo!"

Leo turns to Peggy, "She's getting good at reading faces, I didn't need to say anything, just smile slightly at the right time."

Mattie rubs her belly absentmindedly, returns to her toast and jam, then goes to the fridge and finds the strawberry yogurt. The phone is unlocked, messages checked, no reply from Craig, only more comments to old photos of the medic copy of Max. She puts down the phone and takes a bite of toast, then spoon of yogurt. She looks at Leo, he smiles back, bites his lower lip, frowns then looks at his coffee.

"If Craig knew how many of the others did? If they all did why help so much with the ice to save her? It must have been a small number, surely?" a look of realisation comes slowly across his face, "Sophie's headband. What was an FBI agent doing there and why did they want her headband? And how did they know what it was?"

Their phones chime, Mattie scoops hers up and swipes. "Oh, what a surprise." the sarcastic tone clear for the others to hear.

Peggy frowns at hers, "How do I get to the comments again?"

"Swipe upwards."

"Thank you. Oh. He's taken early retirement?" she taps his profile icon and sees a number of photo posts, "He looks a bit young to retire?"

Mattie looks at Peggy, her expression blank, "Thirty eight if my memory is good, and I think it is. Someone wants him out of the limelight. Leo, can the admin interface tell us if he's still getting messages okay?"

"At the moment it can let us know who's replying or favouriting, let me talk to Toby."

Mattie does a shiver, "Did the central heating come on properly this morning?"

"Yes, feeling cold?"

"Just a bit!"

"Okay, hot shower then back to bed for you."

"But I've got things to do!"

"Then do them from bed, if it's something you can't do from there I'll do it."

"Okay, okay, I'm going." she puts the lid back on the yogurt and returns it to the fridge, takes the last bit of toast with her.

Leo calls after her, "Fancy a fresh hot lemon, ginger and honey Bunny?"

Mattie laughs, "Honey Bunny? Yes please!"

Upstairs Leo finds she's paired her phone with the music system in the bathroom and is singing along to an old track of Peter's.

"I don't remember, I don't recall, I've got no memory of anything at all."

Leo sits on the toilet seat lid, "I keep hearing you play that track, why do you love it so much?"

"Why? You!"

"Come again?"

"You're the exact opposite. Listen to the words." she touches a glass panel and the phone skips back to the beginning.

"What's the track name?"

"I don't remember."

"Even though you listen to it so much?"

"No, that's the track name. I. Don't. Remember."

"Oh, sorry, should have guessed from the lyrics. You're getting quite into some of his music aren't you?"

"Yes. This line made me laugh.. give me a sec." she lets the shower rinse shampoo off her face and turns back to the panel. Another track from the old concert recording plays. "This is a track called Humdrum. It's the sort of music you have to listen to properly to appreciate." she scrubs forward then gets back under the warm water. Peter's voice sings out 'Out of woman come the man, spends the rest of his life gettin back when he can.'

Leo has a good belly laugh, his shoulders bouncing up and down, "The male of the species, guilty as charged! Well most of us."

"Most?"

"You've got to exclude the ones that prefer same sex relationships."

"Are you trying to bring up a certain subject again?"

"No! Stop jumping to frigging conclusions!"

"Oy! That's my word cheeky, find your own!" she smiles.

Leo looks distracted, Mattie realises his mind is elsewhere, searching.

His gaze returns to her, "Fracking is, many are saying in the blog posts I found, 'fucking up' the US and UK ground. So fracking will be my word. Stop jumping to fracking conclusions!"

"Are you going to get those fracking clothes off and join me or what?"

"Now who's stealing words!"

Mattie laughs, "Meh! Get here you hunk of a bionic rabbit..." a second later adds with a laugh, "not with your clothes on!"

Leo gently rubs down her back with the exfoliating sponge and spots a bottle of gel, "Do you know they banned that stuff in America? The tiny plastic beads pass through sewage treatment plants and pollute beaches and harm wildlife?"

"No?!" she grabs the bottle, snaps the lid shut and throws it in the direction of a small bin. "I had no idea! Plain shower gel from now on then." she looks up and lets the water run over her face. "If Craig was special forces, the sniper too then the sniper wasn't someone I'd seen or everyone is keeping very quiet about their identity."

"We could ping them."

"Like a network ping?"

"Sort of. We post some images or something to bait replies. An offer on the comics, a pin-up of you. They found small parts of a phone that had been shot to bits, as our app only allows people to connect from one phone we can see who the shooter may have been from whoever doesn't reply. Discounting any women as the shooter was a man."

"How do you know that?"

"Women don't generally have a mass of chest hair and testicles."

"How do you know about that?"

"I'm a man and.."

"No, how do you know that's what they found?"

"The last comment before everything went quiet."

"Oh. There goes that idea then."

"What idea?"

"I was going to take a photo of you for the ladies, give them a pin-up of their own. But now we don't need it."

"We could still do it, it would help prevent anyone thinking we were targeting just the men wouldn't it?"

"Leo Elster-Hawkins are you saying you'd be a male model for these women?"

"In private, if it helps work out why someone wants carbon copies of my wife out of the way, yes."

"Frigging hell. That's a side of you I've not seen before."

"What, wanting to protect you?"

"No, real outward confidence in your body image. It's quite a change to the man I first met in many layers."

"You have that effect on people."

"So how shall we do this?"

"No idea, I've not done anything like this before. No ideas yourself?"

"We need them to respond right?"

"Yes"

"The more the phones chime the more likely they'll look to see what's going on. And if they see responses from others they know, the more likely they'll join in. Ok, idea one. We takes a photo of each other in the shower, hands in strategic places. No, strike that, way too much flesh. We'll have towels wrapped around us. Then dry and made up, rest on the bed on our sides, towels over our privates. They vote for shower or bed. The best comment on why they should win a poster print gets a copy."

"Sure you'd want to do a poster? It would take the image outside of our control."

"Low risk I'm sure."

"I don't know, things get around the Internet rather fast."

"Ok, special signed copy sent to them only on the app. But how do we know they won't capture it from there?"

"Emily's FYEO idea reduces the risk. She's still a junior coder but she's got some seriously good ideas."

"Fiyo?"

Leo turns so he can get under the water more, "For Your Eyes Only. The app listens to new file events from the OS, if it finds a screen grab in photos with our one pixel wide black and near black encoded border it deletes it and sends us a notification."

"What stops someone photographing it?"

"The code monitors what the selfie camera is looking at. If it detects anything in front of a face or something it thinks may be a camera it blanks the screen. Her latest idea was to detect eye shape and movement too, so people can't put a camera behind a mask. Any pictures or video posted in the FYEO versions can only be opened in the same version or later."

"Isn't that all an invasion of their privacy?"

"Can you pass me the shampoo? Thanks. We don't store or send any of it, just use it to help maintain security. And everyone can read about it before they tap the accept button."

Yet another license agreement she'd not bothered to read in full. She sighs, "Want to grab my phone then?"

~~~

Peggy raises an eyebrow, "I was just drifting off for another catnap and my phone went crazy. It vibrated so much it went off the edge of the table. I do hope a cracked screen is easy to repair? Making your mark as the circle president are you?"

"I'll ask Toby if he can take it into town at the weekend for a swap out. It's only on our private app, not public."

"You assume there are no members that are in both circles, the army and ours?"

"Ah, I had, an incorrect assumption?"

"It was."

"Frig. So who's in both?"

"A medic that was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal."

"Which one?"

"Karon Martinezze."

"I remember her, her PTSD treatment was for when she got stuck in a small outhouse being shot from all sides by the enemy."

"That's her, didn't like confined spaces. I thought you'd have made the connection?"

"What connection?"

"She uses the same photograph for her profile picture in both systems."

"Crud. No, I'd missed it."

"Well she likes the image of you on the bed and Leo in the shower. As does your mother. Sophie says she likes both."

Mattie slaps her forehead, "Sophie! Argh! What's happening to me! I posted to the wrong frigging channel."

"You're in need of rest. You did agree to go back to bed didn't you?"

"Yes, just came down for the rest of the yogurt."

"Until you're feeling better message me, Leo, Max and Fred, let us do the running around. Now go on, back to bed!"

"Yes Grandma!" Mattie gives her a wink.

"Great Grandma in a number of months."

Mattie looks down, "It's not really showing yet is it?"

"No, they're not big enough yet."

"They? I was talking about my belly. My boobs haven't swollen up have they?"

"No, I wasn't, oh dear, I've said too much."

"Peggy?" Mattie watches an upset Peggy leave the room. "Peggy, what's wrong?" she follows Peggy upstairs, finds she's bolted her bedroom door. "Peggy? Was it something I said?"

"No dear, something I said."

"I have no idea what you're on about, come out Peggy. Please."

There's a click from the bolt and the door opens a little for Peggy to peer out.

"Come keep me company in my room, we can chat, watch some TV or read. I'm mostly harmless."


	2. Chapter 2

Leo opens the door to let Jimmy, Jenny and Scarlett in, "Afternoon, how was the shopping?"

Jenny smiles, "We loved your town, Jimmy's taking me to Oxford Street tomorrow!"

Jimmy glances down at the many designer brand bags and grins at Leo. "Good job I'm employed as the human exosynth and bike test pilot still isn't it?"

Jenny rubs a hand over his cheek and smiles, "You were the one that encouraged me to go into many off them."

"I know, can't wait to see you in some of those outfits. It's not all for Jenny by the way Leo, almost a third is for me, and the same for Scarlett."

Leo notices how Jimmy's belt is done up oddly, "Good, no problems with exo' while you were out?"

"Ah, that. A tiny bit."

"What sort? Control, battery, latency?"

"What do you call them?"

Scarlett looks down the road, "WAP."

Leo looks shocked, "Really? Trouble for Scarlett I could understand, but you?"

"The 'exo gives off a very synth like signal, they thought I was a new model of synth until I dropped my pants."

Jenny smiles, "Jimmy, over here they say trousers. Pants would mean you got naked."

"Oh, right, trousers. They got the message and left us alone."

Jenny looks at Leo, "How's Mattie today? She was feeling odd yesterday."

"Feeling a bit cold, we've told her to go back to bed. Pop up and say hello if you want."

Jimmy raises a bag, "I got some different London beers if you want to try some with me Leo?"

"Sure."

~~~

There's a quiet knock on the door.

"It's not locked!"

"Mattie, it's Jenny and Scarlett, can we come in?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"Hi, how are you feeling?"

"Not too bad thanks Jenny. Good shopping trip?"

"Swell thanks."

Scarlett is looking at the towels draped over the chair back. "Would you like me to hang these up somewhere?"

"They should be dry now, Leo cranked up the heating."

Peggy stirs and wakes, "Hello my dears, how are you? Sorry, slipped into another catnap."

Mattie pats her leg through the duvet, "Not a problem, I did the same, just woke ten minutes ago. Nodding off sat up like this is getting too easy."

Scarlett picks up the towels, "Fancy a bit of fun?"

Mattie frowns, "What sort of fun?"

"Play a trick on the men."

"What sort?"

Scarlett bends over and flicks her hair forward, wraps a towel around her head and stands up. She closes her eyes for a few seconds. Mattie's phone bings. "I've sent you some text, read it out aloud."

The email is opened, long text spoken. "The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two." she frowns, "And the point of that was?"

Scarlett smiles, "So I could hear a good mix of all the phonemes you use. My voice will now change to be more like yours." the words "Just for this joke I promise." sound like Mattie.

"Frigging hell, that's weird. It really does feel like I'm looking at myself!"

"Budge over."

Mattie grins and accepts the second towel. "My carbon copy sister looks to have a copy of my wicked side too. Although I suppress mine these days."

"You call pulling that tie from your cleavage suppressed?"

"Apart from that night it's suppressed." she wraps the towel in the same way.

Jenny looks back and forth between the two with a truly wicked grin. "Want to really confuse them?"


	3. Chapter 3

"That's one difference in our use of words I'm glad about." Leo takes another sip.

"What's that buddy?"

"Beer. Over here that's what they call ales. Drunk warm, like at room temperature. Over there they mean a lager drunk nice and cold."

"Really? Warm?"

"Yup."

"Is that one of your British 'acquired tastes' I'm hearing about?"

"British, yes, but not one of mine, I'll let others do that thanks." he reaches over to the bottle, "want a top up?"

"Not at the moment thanks, I don't have much of a capacity for it these days."

"Why is that?"

"Three limbs missing, smaller volume of blood, easier to get my blood alcohol level up."

Leo laughs, "Sorry, wasn't laughing at you, that made me remember when Danny and Toby came home from a party, Toby had said 'Not enough blood in my alcohol system' after he'd tripped over his sisters shoes."

"What had he been drinking?"

"Apple and pear cider."

"Good is it? Never tried it."

"The lads seem to like it." Leo's phone chimes as a text comes in. He reads it and chuckles, "Her royal highness Queen Mattie is asking for an audience. And the chocolate ice-cream and four spoons. Sounds like they're having a girls party up there."

He opens the bedroom door and is shocked by what he sees. "Jimmy! Come here!" he hears the exosynth's heavy footsteps on the stairs, turns to see Jimmy, "You've got to see this." he stands back to let Jimmy past then follows him into the bedroom.

All four women were sat in the bed, all of them with a towel around their heads as if they'd just washed their hair, the duvet pulled up high hiding their clothes.

Jimmy frowns, "Scarlett?"

Both Mattie and Scarlett respond "Yes?"

Leo's face pulls the most confused look Mattie had ever seen. She manages to keep a straight face.

"Mattie?"

Both again respond "Yes?"

"This is messed up! Which of you is my wife?"

Again a chorus "I am!"

"You can't both be. One of you is Mattie, the other Scarlett."

Jimmy looks at Leo, then back to the ladies, "Then which of you is my sister?"

Again a chorus, "I am!"

He shakes his head and looks at the floor. "Leo, I think this is a test." he looks back up at the four, "Okay. Scarlett helped me pick something special for Jenny, what was it?"

"A pink lace negligee."

Jimmy turns to look to the right and starts smiling.

"And silver belly ring."

Jimmy's smile fades a little as he turns to the left. "Thought I had you there."

The next ten minutes are spent with Leo and Jimmy asking all sorts of questions.

Leo shakes his head, "The sisters know each other far better than I'd realised. This is embarrassing."

Jimmy pinches the bridge of his nose, "The tattoo you want Silas to print over your belly scar. Which book of artwork inspired the design you drew?"

Scarlett burst out laughing, "Frig, you got me, I've no idea about that one! Now hand over the ice-cream before it melts too much."

Leo goes to her side and is about to give her a kiss when she reaches up and pulls off the towel to show her copper hair. "Gotcha!"

Leo looks a little shocked but then gives her a kiss anyway, just a peck on the lips, "You are as nutty as my wife. I like that."

"Nutty am I?"

Leo walks around to the other side of the bed, "In a good way, yes. Your warped sense of humour was one of the many things that attracted me to you." he gives her a bigger kiss. "Jimmy's never had cider, since you look like bugs in rugs I'm going to find Toby and Dan and take them to a pub."

"Okay Bunny, have fun. Any film preferences ladies?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Cheers!"

"Thanks guys. Which one is this? As you say, Jenny would like it."

"Cornish Orchards Blush. Hola's fave, raspberries are blended into the apple, makes it a bit more like pink champagne."

"And the one before it?"

"Magners. But some don't think mass produced ciders are really cider because of all the additives. Blush isn't mass produced. Well not in the same volumes and using more traditional techniques. Hola had her work cut out getting the pub to stock it."

Danny takes a sip of his Thatchers, "Ems quite likes it too."

Jimmy smiles, "You kids are lucky, over my side of the pond you can't drink in a place like this until you're twenty one."

"Yet I could purchase a hand gun. Isn't that a bit messed up?"

"Getting shit-faced wasn't one of the things the founding fathers were worrying about Dan."

Max smiles softly, taking in the banter incase he can use any of it. He can hear the family and Jimmy and surrounding drinkers well, but is paying particular attention to a rather animated couple at the far side of the pub he's lip reading.

Jimmy goes to move to see the rest of the bar taps and wobbles, accidentally knocks the man behind him who spills some of his pint down his shirt.

"Oi! Watch it you legless cunt!"

The expression on Jimmy's face became one of enraged anger.

Toby puts a hand out fast, "He didn't mean it like the way you think!"

"Yes I did, he's pissed!" the man shoves Jimmy back.

Danny steps in, looks at the stranger, "Mate, stop, you don't know who you're dealing with."

"Don't give a fuck, look what he's done to me shirt, I'm supposed to be meeting me bird in an hour!"

Jimmy turns, "I get the piss taken out of me for not using the Queens English but even I know that should be MY bird not ME."

"Piss off!"

"I may not have my own legs these days but I could still piss all over you any day boy!"

"Who the fuck are you calling boy?"

Jimmy steps real close, snarls, "You!"

Leo puts an arm between the two, "Corporal Colins, I know you'd win a fight, we don't want any dead bodies here."

The man looks at Leo, "Corporal, as in army?"

Jimmy is still up in the mans face, "Your ears work okay then son? Shame your eyes don't. You've got a Help The Hero's badge on the jacket you've got resting on the bar stool but can't recognise one when you see them!"

"What the fuck have you been drinking?"

"You can't see the patches on my jacket? Right in front of your stupid face? They can't look anything other than military surely?" Jimmy starts to undo his belt, "Exo' full stretch please." his torso starts to rise.

"What the fuck?"

Leo puts his hand on Jimmy's chest, "Jim, not here!"

"No Leo, this guy has me fuming, he's got to see."

Jimmy unzips his trousers and lets them fall to the floor.

"Holy shit!"

There's a lot of whispering and the pub goes deadly quiet, you could hear a pin drop on the furthest table.

Jimmy is standing, the 'exo spine taking his weight. But his stumps have left the top of his artificial legs. "Exo lock position please." he wiggles them, "I lost my legs on my last tour, these guys helped make me new ones."

The man's jaw hits the floor, "Fuck me. So sorry mate. My mate and all the guys I see on telly have obvious false legs, a limp or are in wheelchairs. Not moving about like you did when you all walked in."

"Don't call someone legless again. Some of my buddies would have punched you by now. And they punch hard. Very hard, go for a kill not a knockout. Leo's wife has helped a lot of them with anger issues, but not all of them have seen her. Exo' standing dress mode please."

The man takes a step back as the exosynth lowers, then starts bending allowing Jimmy to reach his trousers and pull them up.

He watches as Jimmy zips and belts them back up. "Does it understand other stuff?"

"I can run, sit, ride my bike, make love to the wife, not tried swimming yet, no idea if it floats or is waterproof. You said 'My mate'?"

"Sorry. I f'ed up. Can we start over? I'm Marcus. Me best, sorry, my best mate lost his legs in a factory accident, dived to save the owner's girl when some high warehouse shelving collapsed. She got away with a broken arm, lots of bruises. A heavy part pinned him to the floor, smashed his legs up. It's why I started watching what they do for some of the soldiers here, you know Help The Hero's. Which is nothing like what you got. I'll understand if you think I'm a total twat, but he's a real diamond, deserves a break. Any chance he can meet you?"

"Jesus, I thought you'd never stop fucking talking," Jimmy looks to the lads, "A twat?"

"Female genitalia."

"Oh, a cunt," he turns back and reads the mans face, "what you started this whole conversation with, only prefixed with legless. You hardly gave me a chance to apologise or make things right."

"Make things right?"

"Yeah. There's a shirt shop not two hundred yards from here."

"There is? Sorry. Can he see you?"

"Sure kid, bring him over. Now. And I'm doing it for him not his twat of a friend."

Marcus pulls out his phone and dials, "... Come on, pick up... answer the bl.. Hi! Susie! Can you drive over to Steve and bring him over to the pub? I know we did, please, it's really important, you'll see why when you get here. Ta." he puts the phone away, "Twenty minutes. Let me get you a refill." he sticks a hand in the air to get the barmaids attention.

Twenty five minutes later a lady comes through the door backwards pulling a basic wheelchair up over the step.

She turns to see Marcus, "So what's so important we'll have to miss the start of the party?"

"Steve, I'd like you to meet Jimmy. I think he's got something you might like a lot.."


	5. Chapter 5

Sophie bursts into the bedroom, her iPad playing one of her favourite Disney Pixar films, "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Mattie listen!" she jumps on the bed and rolls on her back, holds the thing up high at an angle so that she and the others can see it.

"You okay Teeny?"

"I usually stop at this bit and watch the next film. Listen."

"That's Wall-e right?"

"Shh"

Mattie rolls her eyes as the closing credits and musical score starts. Half a minute later Mattie's eyebrows raise and a smile comes across the whole of her face. She looks down to see Sophie with her head right back, looking at her upside down, also smiling. "Nice find Teeny!"

"It's called Down To Earth!"

Scarlett smiles, "From the pitch and tone.."

Sophie turns her head, "You don't need to explain why, just say who you think it is."

"It's Peter?"

"Yes. All this time one of my favourite films has a song by Peter at the end and I didn't know. I'm going to show my school friends."

Mattie's phone vibrates, having been muted with all the votes and comments coming in. "Grrrr. It's like an annoying mosquito you can't catch" she slides it under the pillow for a moment.

Sophie slides off the bed and spins around, "And I've done a dance routine for my friends at the pool to his song I Go Swimming!"

Just as she gets her arms up to show them there's a knock at the door, "Can I come in?"

"Sure Nis."

She steps into the room and sees the four on the bed and Sophie now about to sit down. "I got a message from Leo, he said you might have a rescue mission for me?"

"He did? I'd not asked him to say anything?"

"I'm reasonably sure that's what the message was."

"Only reasonably?"

"He sounded a little .. drunk. As did Danny and Toby from the background noises. Jimmy sounded the worst."

"What did he say?"

"Yehaaa! Come on Exo get me home!"

"Good God. Good job you can't be charged for being drunk in charge of a exosynth. Yet"

The front door slams and Leo shouts "We're home!"

"Can you tell them all to stay downstairs until they've sobered up?"

Nis heads to the top of the stairs and does as asked, returns a moment later. "They've got the message, I could hear Dan say 'Coffee STAT!' and the kettle fill. Who needs rescuing?"

"Harun."

"I thought he was in India?"

"Yup. Which is why I wouldn't want you going out there, too risky, especially if a sniper is picking off Matia and Harun copies. And his phone is now dead."

"He's copied himself?"

"And Matia, thousands of them he said."

Scarlett leans forwards to see Mattie, "Finding him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. And if they're being shot very risky to go out there."

"You could make a copy of me. Make a mental twin in another body. It would have all my experiences, knowledge and skills. Just not my good looks."

Sophie claps, "Teleporter! Teleport-Her! Great idea Nis!"

"Teeny!"

Scarlett smiles, "Well it is. You could teleport Nis today, you know, get her backup into a new body that's already out there. Like at the end of Chappie. All she'd need to do is think hard about the mission as the backup runs, make sure that's the big thought she has when she powers up."

"When did you watch Chappie?"

"I've watched every film on Toby and Daniels top one hundred list."

"When?"

"This afternoon."

"All one hundred?"

"Ten at a time at twenty times normal speed. I'm an L of a good film watcher."

"Ha! We'd need help in India, who do we trust? Harun's phone isn't working, we don't know who might have been working with the sniper."

Peggy runs her hands back and forth on her knees. "You need someone nobody would bother to look at, have them purchase a new synth helper, help download the code."

"Like who?"

"Some old dear that's frail and needs a hand?"

"You're volunteering?"

"Why not, I can act the dithering old fool when I want. I'd only need to be out there a few days, maybe a week tops, I could get an open return ticket."

"You really want to do this?"

"Peggy Hathaway at your service ma'am!" she hits her head with her salute getting a giggle from Sophie.

"Ok, let's find you the best possible hotel. Harun's mum should know roughly where he is, town wise, assuming he's not run far."

"I'll interrogate her. Nicely."

Mattie nods, "Thanks, I've been feeling a little guilty that I didn't respond faster. But he's created this mess, needs to suffer a little. I just hope his synth moves are as rubbish as they were at school." she taps the bed, "Teeny, you've been waiting patiently to show us something?"

"Toby did a short remix of I Go Swimming for my team to do at the pool when we go up for the Nationals." she hits play on Garage Band and starts her short dance.

To her surprise Peggy see's some of her moves starting and follows her. When the short remix ends she gives Peggy a classic puzzled Sophie look, "Have you seen me practice?"

"No dear."

"How did you know some of my moves?"

"Have you seen 'The swim' from the 60's?"

"No?"

"Go on Youtube and search The Swim Dance."


	6. Chapter 6

"Hello Mrs Kahn, I'm Niska Elster, a friend of Mattie and Leo's. Mattie had a call, Harun's in a lot of danger and we're looking to rescue him. I need to know as much about him as possible to help me track him down."

"How do I know who you are? I've never seen you before or heard your name." she goes to close the door.

Niska kicks a foot out and gets it between the door and frame. "This is your son's life I'm talking about, I'd have expected more concern. Call Mattie, she'll verify who I am."

"I don't have her number."

"I'd tell you to call Harun himself but his phone died mid call to Mattie. He was explaining that copies of him and Matia were being shot."

Mrs Kahn checks the neighbour's windows, "Come in, quick."

With Niska inside she checks the windows one more time and closes the door.

"Are you expecting trouble Mrs Khan?"

"No, why?"

"You checked your neighbour's windows twice in under a minute."

"We had some problems with neighbours, it's left me a bit paranoid." she remembers Leo's visit, "Would you like a drink?"

"What would you have?"

"Orange Pekoe Black Tea."

"I'll try one of those thanks."

Niska follows her into the kitchen, checks out the knife block, it doesn't go unnoticed, "Sorry, force of habit, I use knives and throwing stars to protect myself, and others. Would you like to confirm my identity with Mattie, I can call her for you?"

"How would I know it's her on the other end? Not just another neighbor playing a nasty trick again?"

"Ask her something only she would know."

Mrs Kahn holds her hand out for the phone.

Niska hadn't expected her to want to do it, thought the offer would be enough. She gets it out and dials, hands it over.

"Hello? Is that Mattie? Yes, I have a friend of yours here I believe, when you were here with Leo you went a little crazy about something a synth did. What was it.... Ok, thanks, I'll give her all she needs to know." she hands back the phone, the call still active.

Niska puts it to her ear and hears the call drop. "Mattie had a copy of Matia made and shipped to America for a badly injured veteran, he'd lost an arm and both legs. At a concert put on for Mattie the synth was shot in the head. Mattie thinks it was special forces confusing it with Matia copies. Harun said Matia was stolen two months ago. He's in hiding, a sniper is taking out all of the copies of them both."

"He's copied himself too? Oh Harun what mess are you in now!" Mrs Khan buries her face in her hands.

"That's why we'd like your help, any clues as to where he might be. The more you can tell me about your son the more I can get into his mind, his way of thinking, hopefully find him and bring him home."

"How will you know him from his copies?"

"I'll know, I'll sense it."

"When will you fly out?"

"I won't, not physically." she takes another sip of her tea, "My mind will be going."

Mrs Khan slides her chair back, "You're a synthetic?"

"Yes, is that a problem for you?"

"It was... a bit of a shock, you're far more .. natural than Matia was."

Niska smiles. "Thank you. Tell me everything."


	7. Chapter 7

Niska gets to the drive, finds Leo in DC2 with Peggy in the passenger seat, the engine running. The passenger window lowers, "I thought I'd miss you. Thanks for the message, Mattie's got Peggy on a flight to Mumbai that leaves in three hours."

"Mrs Khan thinks he was staying with a relative eleven kilometres outside of Mumbai."

"Good, we guessed he wouldn't live to far from work, hopefully he's not moved further."

Niska looks at Peggy, "Don't become too much of a Miss Marple, get the most up to date synth you can get and let me do my thing. Do you have a PC packed?"

"Yes, Leo's given me his old laptop."

"Great, have a good flight."

Nis watches the car disappear from sight and heads indoors. She finds Mia and Laura in the kitchen laughing about something, two large victoria sponges cooling on a cake rack. "My latest mission is on."

Mia turns to see her sister, "Mission Nis?"

"I'm going to India."

Laura pours more wine, "Leo just left with Peggy for the airport, how are you going to get there?"

"I just spoke to them. Sophie's idea, teleportation."

"Like in a Star Trek film? That technology doesn't exist." Laura takes a sip of her wine and puts the glass down.

"Clever Little Mouse. For us it does Laura. Our backups."

"Peggy's got Leo's old laptop, she just needs to find me a new body to restore into."

Laura twists the glass one way then the other by it's stem. "So you'd power down here, power up in India a few hours later?"

"That's what Sophie probably had in mind. But not what I plan to do."

Mia looks concerned, "Nis?"

"I'm going to give myself an extra instruction. Buy the best communications devices I can out there, multiple ones if needed. Use an idea Colin programmed into his quadcopter drones. I'm going to set up a hive mind."

Laura chokes, "Now that is one thing Emily and Holly-Anne like in Star Trek, the Borg. Fancy being the Borg Queen do you Nis?"

"If by that you mean being a head and torso joined into a mechanical body, no, that's.." Niska pauses, "I was going to say something uncomplimentary but that would be an insult to Jimmy. I like Jimmy. Being able to share minds with my other self in India, yes. And Mattie's already written the code to compress sensory data. Fred used it to control Gesha's body when he did his own surgery."

Mia looks at the cakes and sees they've cooled enough, gets up to stick them together with jam. "Won't the latency between the two countries be a problem?"

"A couple of hundred milliseconds should be okay. I want to use the code to share thought data, sight and sound, not control the self in India like a puppet. You're used the saying Laura. Two heads are better than one."

~~~

"Are the boys sober now do you think?"

Jenny shakes her head, "Probably not. It takes a good while for the body to break down alcohol. Why?"

"I was planning to take Teeny clothes shopping this evening."

Sophie rolls over and looks at her sister the right way up, "Do you feel up to it?"

"I don't feel cold anymore, haven't for a couple of hours. Want to get ready? I'm going to layer up so I can control my temperature better, just in case." she's suddenly struck with a thought, had that been the reason Leo did it? Unwell and on the run with his family, trying to stay warm, nothing to do with his mental state.

"And where is my badass big sister thinking of taking me?"

"Since you called me that, how about Westfield in Stratford?"

"YES PLEASE!" Sophie does a series of rolls and drops off the side of the bed, gets to her feet, "I'm going to change, let Mum know."

"Teeny?"

"Yes?"

"Your iPad?"

"Oh, thanks, almost forgot."

~~~

They find the men watching an old 70's movie Westworld, Yul Brynner playing an unstoppable robot version of his Magnificent Seven gunslinger.

It stops Mattie in her tracks, "I wonder what the films maker would think about Nis. Fred, did you give her all the ammunition you had for that steampunk gun?"

"I did Mattie. Do you think she'll be needing it?"

"Maybe. Or rather her self in India. Do you know if she passed it to Peggy?"

"I don't."

"Enjoy Westworld, we're off to Westfield."

The ladies all leave.

Max isn't watching the film, instead looking at Leo and Fred, "Mattie said 'her self in India', why was that?"

Leo keeps his eyes on the TV, "I'll tell you when the film's over."

The door bell chimes. Fred looks up, "It's Odi, I'll let him in."

The Five Amigos carry on watching the film.

~~~

Mattie tells Sophie to get into the front, the evening will be a very belated gift for missing her twelfth birthday.

"Can I pick the music please?"

"Sure Teeny, fancy playing the song you played in the bedroom? I really liked that, it's quite upbeat like Kiss That Frog and Big Time."

Sophie sings along, Mattie, Jenny and Scarlett are soon joining in. Scarlett having a slight advantage remembered the words from the bedroom, Mattie and Jenny need a couple of plays to get them memorised.

"What shall we sing next?"

"I don't know Teeny, it's your treat, what do you fancy?"

"Into The Night! We both like that one."

Jenny watches the anime playing on the back of Sophie's headrest. "This is the band that played at your concert isn't it Mattie?"

"Yes, Nero. Dan, Joe and Alana. Leo took me to a concert of theirs in New York last year. It was awesome! We could get the projector set up and watch it Friday evening if you want?"

"Can't we watch it tonight Mattie?"

"It is a school night Teeny, if we all go out for dinner we'd be back a bit late."


	8. Chapter 8

Sophie decides that shoes need to come first.

"Remember how Paul and Mum described shoes, the accessories to make or break an outfit?"

"Yes, I'm going to start at the bottom and work up!"

"Okay. You've got a few stores to pick from. Which do you want to try first?"

"Office."

The four head to the shop, are looking at all of the many styles. Sophie settles for a heeled brown lace up boot. "Can I have these please Mattie?"

"Sure. Anything else?"

"I'd like some jeans. From Levi. Please."

"Sure. Either of you two want anything? Okay, lets go pay."

At the tills Scarlett nods towards a sign on the wall. '10% off for all armed forces'. Mattie hands over her card, "Excuse me please, does that apply to retired personnel too?"

"It does, just bring in any old ID you have."

"Oh it's not for me, friends visiting."

"We do student discount too."

"Cool, I've still got my uni card in here somewhere."

"Ok, where next?"

"Levi's"

"So you said, ground up."

Mattie laughs, "That was a SISO if ever I've seen one. Good job they had the size and colour first time, didn't think they'd go down as low as a 23inch waist."

Jennie is behind them with Scarlett, "Siso, what's one of those?"

"I have no idea.... and the lookup I just did doesn't fit. Mattie, what is a siso?"

"It's an acronym. S. I. S. O. Steam in, Steam out. Like an old steam train, fast shop, when you're in and out quick with whatever you went for."

Jenny smiles, "That works with Steam in, Slow out too."

Mattie turns one eighty and walks backwards for a few seconds, "True, but that's SICO. Steam in, Crawl out. The sort that drives me nuts!" she turns around again to see where she's going.

"Sounds like Psycho, Bates Motel sort of thing?"

"Exactly!! Which is why I hate shopping. For myself that is. If I'm not sure what I want when I set out and I'm on my own."

They go to pass the Superdry Store, Sophie steers them in for a look. Moments later they're back out with a bright colourful rucksack.

"You need some tops next, maybe underwear?"

Sophie nods.

"M&S have got some new lines you might like, let's have a look in there."

Half an hour later with Mattie's arm loaded down with underwear and tops they turn a corner and find themselves in the baby clothes section.

"Look Mattie! A baby lamb holding a snoozie! Are you having a boy or girl?"

"Don't know Teeny. Rather sweet isn't it?" she rubs her stomach without thinking and smiles at the range of products on offer.

"OMG Look at these Mattie!"

"What are those?"

Sophie moves her fingers off the text at the bottom of the box, "Rattle pram shoes? In the shape of baby elephants."

"Grab one of each."

"Okay."


	9. Chapter 9

She turns to see Scarlett at a counter paying for something. She's just about to ask Jenny about it when the phone chimes, a new MMS from Peggy. She glances at her watch, does a quick calculation. "Why would Peggy be sending a message at 1AM?" she unlocks the phone to look at the picture. "Oh. It must have been stuck in the network, they're in daylight. I was expecting an Indian lady, she looks stunning! A hint of Chinese."

"Can I see?"

Mattie hands the phone to Jenny.

"She's beautiful! Do you think she's another copy? Like Harun copied you?"

"No idea, no easy way to find out either."

"Yes there is, use the App Jimmy has."

"Really? Which app?"

"Reverse image search."

Mattie installs it, Sophie and Jenny watching at either side.

"Save the photo from the message, then open it in the app and crop close around her face... Closer. Closer still. Now send."

The three of them watch the icon spinning as the image is uploaded and searching done. There's two sharp intakes of breath.

"Wow! That's got to be her!" Sophie points to one of the possible matches. "Fan Bingbing? Is that a real name?"

"No idea Teeny. I wonder how good the technology is?" she holds the phone out and takes a selfie, crops tight and sends, again the icon spins for a while. A little longer than before.

"Maybe my badass big sister isn't as easy to match?" The screen changes. "Oh. My. God!"

"Frigging hell!"

Jenny nudges Mattie, "Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins, single match, no 'might be' alternate images offered? That's a first."

Sophie frowns, "Where's that image from?"

"My agent's web site. Remember what Leo Mansell said? Phil's helping with the steady stream of post and emails."

"So that's why the post man doesn't come every day anymore."

Jenny does a search on her own phone, swipes through dozens of pictures.

"STOP!"

Jenny freezes, her finger poised above the glass. "Something wrong?"

"Look Mattie!"

"Which image?"

"Blink! She played Blink in X-Men Days of future past. This is spooky!"

"Spooky? Why?"

Sophie gets her phone out and finds the Wikipedia entry "A mutant with the power of teleportation. Teleportation! What I said Nis should do!" she has a shiver shudder, quickly looks around over her shoulder, "Weird."

"Teeny? You okay?"

"It felt like a cold hand was on my left shoulder."

Scarlett returns, a bag swinging from her hand, "What's wrong with Sophie?"

Mattie frowns, "What do you mean wrong?"

"She looks like she's seen a ghost and he left side is significantly colder."

"Mattie, can we pay for things and go please?"

Ten minutes after they've left a heating engineer erects a yellow barrier around the patch and climbs his ladder to pull down some ceiling panels. He turns to his young colleague, "Unless you want to be replaced by a synth you've got to listen and carry out instructions. I asked you to swap out this thermostat, this isn't a new one. What did you do?"

"Took it down and checked it. It looked fine."

"Well it can't be if four customers bothered to come and make a complaint now can it?"

"Guess not."

"Glad you agree now. I'll leave you to it."

Mattie's phone chimes again. Thinking it might be Peggy she takes a quick look. "Oh, they're rather nice, could definitely use those!"

Sophie tries to see the screen, "What are they?"

"Toby's school went to a technology demonstration at BT, Toby got a tour of one of their refitted floors once they learnt he works for DCL, they've got these lovely floor to ceiling pictures with inspirational texts. He thought I'd like these two for my next speech."

"What do they say?"

"You won't get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it. John Lennon." she swipes sideways, "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Albert Einstein."

"I like that last one! Can we check out New Look for a waistcoat jacket?"

"Sure Teeny."

They're in the corner of the store checking out jackets and hats. With the pop music playing in the store they're getting into a party sort of mood, the four all try on different hats and take selfies and group photos. They're just about to take their selections to the counter to pay when the music changes track.

'Even if I could see into your mind..'

Sophie drops all the shopping on the floor and starts dancing.

Mattie joins in, laughing, "The lads joke that we dance around handbags at clubs."

"We'll we're doing it around a rucksack and shopping bags, close enough!"

Scarlett joins in.

Sophie looks amazed, "When did you learn those moves?"

"Seconds after I spotted you dancing I searched for dance videos. Two had music with similar tempo and style. Is my dancing appropriate?"

"Yes!"

Jenny shrugs, "There's definitely a crazy fun gene in your family, what the hell." she drops her shopping onto the pile, pulls her hairband out and joins in.

The store manager spots them and cranks up the volume.


	10. Chapter 10

"What do you fancy for dinner Soph, they've got a TGI Fridays, Pizza Express, GBK,"

"Something new?"

"Tried Japanese?"

"No, lets."

"Umai then."

Sophie is trying to get the hang of chopsticks, refuses a knife and fork, "That's cheating." a dumpling goes crashing into the soy sauce, splashing drops towards Jenny. "Oops! Sorry!"

"None of it touched me, carry on, practice makes perfect."

"What's in these ones?"

"Pork Teeny, that other one is shrimp. Fancy some more sticky rice?"

"Yes please."

Mattie's phone chimes. They'd all put them in a pile in the middle of the table. As hers was on top Sophie's able to read it, even upside down. "A tag request from New Look?"

"We did agree not to use phones."

"But New Look? The store not a person?"

"Looks like it."

Jenny looks at Scarlett, "We don't mind do we Scarlett?"

"No, take a look."

"Oh my. Not the sort of thing I want on my official page. Personal profile sure. Declined!"

"What was it?"

"Us dancing in the store. Take a look."


	11. Chapter 11

Mattie wakes to feel Leo snuggled up beside her, lovely and warm. Her phone chimes again. She slowly reaches out for it.

"Morning Mummy Bunny, I'm awake, was waiting for you to wake up."

She pulls her arm back and rolls to face him, wraps an arm and leg around him, gives him a kiss, "Morning handsome, how was Max last night?"

"Great, he's learning quickly about what material works and what doesn't."

"Still a mix of visual and spoken stuff?"

"Yes, that's not changed. Though no dress or fruit last night. How was your evening?"

"Great too, we have a plan. We're going.." the phone chimes again with Peggy's tone. "Sorry Bunny, one sec."

Mattie grabs the phone and looks at the MMS photo, groans, "Frigging hell, NOT a Matia model Peggy! Give me a moment Bunny."

"Sure."

The phone rings and rings, "Come on Peg.. Hi, how was the flight? Good. I know Niska asked you to get the best model you could but it mustn't be a Matia model. What happened to the one you sent a photo of yesterday, she looked perfect. Did they? That can't be true, no. Insist they swap it over. Niska hasn't restored to it yet has she? Good. Call them now please. Actually send me the number and I'll call them myself. I'll call you back."

She slides out of bed and goes to a draw, pulls out an old makeup zip bag. Back on the bed she shakes it and unzips it, pulls out an old iPhone. "Can you pick one please?"

Leo reaches into the bag, fishes around, "And this morning's winner is... EE."

Mattie had popped the SIM holder out and snapped the old one in two, puts the new one in.

"How many pay and go sims did you get?"

"One hundred."

"How many left?"

"About thirty."

"Why buy so many?"

"I don't want anyone to be able to work out a pattern that points back to us." she sits and pulls her knees up a little, types the number from one phone into the other. "Let's see what they have to say for themselves." the phone starts ringing. "Hello, Good.. Afternoon, my elderly grandmother purchased a synthetic from your branch to help her with things. Yes. Mrs Peggy Hathaway. She was told you only have the one J model, the others are H or older. No. I don't want her having one that looks like Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins. No. I don't like the woman, detest her. You must have. Then I'll tell her to bring it back for a refund. No, why would I do that? Ok, I'll hold." she shakes her head, "Pack of frigging lies is what that was. Them way more than me." she slides back down the bed and rolls to face Leo, the phone now held to the other ear. She wraps her leg around his, gives him a peck. "Persona aren't usually that bad, but Harun did say they've been taken over by.. Hi! Yes, you do? Which series? Yes, J will be fine. Female model. No, it must be female. That may well be the case but we are the customer and we want female. No. Can I speak to your manager please? Oh. Well it's a female J series or a full refund, up to you... Okay, I'll have her come right away." she ends the call. "Aarrgghh! Frigging fracking fucking wankers! They're pushing what they want to shift onto customers, not giving a toss about what they want! But then when does any criminal?" she grabs the pin and removes the sim, is about to angrily snap it.

"Don't!"

"Why?"

"In case you need to call him again. Give me a moment." he goes to another bedroom they use as an office, returns with a wad of envelopes and a pen. "Here, write the name of who you called on one and pop the sim inside. One sim per person called."

"Thanks Bunny." she calls Peggy back on her usual phone, "Hi, they've agreed to a swap. Get the synths chest strapped down and have her wear a silk scarf over her head to help hide her face. And tell her she's to walk five paces behind you. I know how it will look. No, I'm serious, we don't want you too close incase someone figures things out and shoots."


	12. Chapter 12

Friday morning Mattie gets a call from Danny, could she attend a meeting by video call, a new client needed help with a social media plan. He was there with Leo talking to a large group of people. It would be a bit different to all her previous work as the end users wouldn't be the general public, but they wanted to make the public aware of the product and it's capabilities. Danny had taken the sensors from the vest top Mattie had been giving out to all of her PTSD patients and worked them into a full sized kevlar vest. It would be sold to the police and security services as well as the military. Any nearby medics would be alerted via secure wideband radio pulses as to the state of their potential patients. One of the client's team had wanted to call them ghost vests as they transmitted information, but in a way the enemy couldn't triangulate thanks to the way the radio bounced off objects. They might know they were there, but not where and never see them. Only the medic with the security keys to decode the transmission could know the location, encoded into the short pulses. They had a number of failsafes to prevent the unit from working for anyone else. Danny had talked a lot with Mattie and thought the word ghost was in bad taste, wanted her, needed her, to come up with something better. And he wanted her to deliver it as she'd got the knack of making the client think they'd come up with it. DCL would take credit for all the work they needed, would leave the clients happy too.

Mattie had worked her magic, slowly seeded and steered the conversation, teasing the word she wanted out of their marketing executive. And so the Whisper Vest was born. Videos would be shot of soldiers in need of help, the medics getting a whisper asking for help. And another with soldiers surrounding the enemy, whispering that they should surrender to avoid being killed by forces unseen. One of end clients had particularly liked that, the psychological side of warfare. Before the meeting was even half way through it was revealed that it wasn't just the manufacturer's team in the room, but representatives from their biggest clients too. One had got up and turned to the camera, "If we can convince them to surrender without a single shot being fired we're better people for it. Any loss of life should be avoided, on either side. Many wars end in tit for tat retaliations that continue way after whatever started the war is over. If the other side can be given a better vision of their future hopefully wars can come to an end. Dr Elster-Hawkins, I understand from my guys on the front line you may have a team that can create something for us, something we can carpet drop into areas of conflict?"

"You're not talking about our comics are you?"

"I am. We'd need to have your team working with locals, get the images and language spot on. Via the Internet that is, we don't want to put any of them in harms way."

"Okay.. I'll ask Holly-Anne if she's got the capacity to take on a fourth comic. How many issues?"

"As many as it takes."

Mattie raises her eyebrows, "I'll ask around, see if anymore of my past patients need work."

"Thank you Doctor."

"Mattie, please."

The man turns to his hosts, "I don't know about you lot but I'm way overdue a lunch break. Can we grab a bite?"

They agree to break for an hour, rejoin at four o'clock.

At ten to four Sophie is dropped home by one of her friends parents, "Hi Mattie, I noticed the lights on, what are you working on?"

"Hi Teeny. I made a start on collecting data to try and work out where Harun is."

"I've got lots of homework to catch up with, can I help you in the morning?"

"Sure Teeny, the more the merrier."

An hour later she yawns and stretches, talks to her bump, "I think that's enough for one day don't you? Mummy's hungry and tired."

She goes to the cupboard and grabs a handful of Mia's cakes, finds they're out of yogurt. "Oh frig!"

She types out a txt, 'Mummy Bunny out of yogurt, can Daddy Bunny get some when leaving Danny's please?', goes back to the fridge and looks at what else they need, adds 'Two large pots. And large bottle of milk too please.'

Txt sent she heads upstairs to the bathroom and pairs her phone, puts on the automatic playlist of all tracks she'd marked as favourites. Stripped down with her clothes in a neat pile on the toilet seat lid she looks down and has some childish playful thoughts. Where were her feet? They'd long been hidden by the bump. A hand against the wall for stability she puts her right foot forward. "Peekaboo! Oh frig. Daddy Bunny is going to have to help Mummy Bunny with the nail clippers tonight, they're horribly long." her left foot gets a look, just as bad.

A video call comes in, she instinctively taps the answer button on the glass panel. Milliseconds later her conscious kicks her subconscious for being so silly and hangs up. "That was close guys! Mummy Bunny standing here ready for a warm shower and Danny or Leo are calling from DC1! Good job they both had their eyes on the road and missed the show. Daddy Bunny gets to see everything, Uncle Danny nothing. Danny Bunny changed the bedding before he went out. A nice hot shower and fresh bed. You can't beat it."

A video call comes in again. This time she taps the video mute icon first and puts a hand over the camera, checks her picture in picture is black before tapping the answer button. "Hi Leo."

"Everything okay, the first call dropped?"

"We're good thanks."

"Something's wrong, I'm not getting video this end."

"Nothing's wrong, I just can't share at the moment."

"Oh, okay. We're almost at the supermarket, did you want strawberry again?"

"Please. Since you're both on the phone how's the new office looking?"

"Brilliant thanks Mattie! The conservatory working out so well for your families really got her creative juices flowing. She did some 3D models we could see via the phone, augmented reality stuff. Hopefully we'll be fully operational in there this year. They've finished laying the slab today. Leo and I did a physical walk around it, watching the VR, it's going to be bloody huge! Your cinema lecture hall is going to be so popular. How many schools have signed up for visits now?"

"Twenty three so far."

"Awesome! Mum and Dad are looking forward to the move too. Mum's really excited about her studio!"

"Nice. Would love to talk more but I'm getting cold, see you soon Leo."

"Bye then."

~~~

Mattie feels a kiss on her cheek and smiles, stays snuggled up under the duvet eyes closed. "Hi Bunny."

"How did you know it was me?"

"Your routine."

"What do you mean?"

"The way you close the door, kick your shoes off and put down your keys. The way you take the stairs two at a time."

"Fancy a cuppa?"

"Yes please. And some yogurt to go with my cakes. Then I've got a little job I need a hand with."

Leo drops the nail clippings onto a bit of paper and screws it up, "Sophie used to give us animal nicknames, I wonder what she'd have called you on seeing those?"

"They weren't that bad!"

"You didn't see them up close."

"Bit gross were they?"

"I'm not calling any part of my wife gross, but I'm glad they're looking a bit more presentable." he gets onto the bed covers and wriggles next to her. "Nicknames reminds me, Danny's after an official name for the building."

"DC House or his parents?"

"DC. His parents have picked a name."

"I'd seen her early sketches, has it changed much?"

Leo rolls onto his side, smiles warmly at her, "This is Danny we're talking about. He used that idea from Colin, threw every idea in and then cut back to something reasonable that fit the budget."

Mattie runs her hand over his cheek, "So what made the cut?"

"Lots! Bigger house for his parents with more rooms, a lorry port that joins the hospital wing, lecture theatre for you and visiting talkers that doubles as a cinema, lots of office space, a Makerspace for the community, housing for Fred and Gesha, same for him and Emily."

"Wow!"

"And it being Danny enough fibre and copper to reach the moon and back. It will have the most advanced teaching facility on the planet."

"Who'd have thought I'd end up teaching coding and AI? Hopefully I'm all certified by the time it's all ready. He didn't have planning permission problems in the end then?"

"No, when the community realised what they'd be getting they pressured the council to drop their plans for a preservation order. The old mansion was falling to bits. Broken roof, all wood rotten. It would have cost millions to restore it. Nobody would want a house that size, it wasn't a good configuration for conversion to flats either." he grins, "Danny persuaded the demo team to let his Dad have a go at the wrecking ball, showed me a video he'd taken. His inner child had a wail of a time!"

"I wish I'd made the time to visit the site."

"I wouldn't worry, Dan's only seen it a few times, he's letting the project managers get on with it."

"Managers?"

"Holly-Anne, his father, a contract architect and project manager that's worked on large wiring installation."

"How much is he spending?"

"All in, land purchase, demo, build and fit out? Eleven million."

"Holy shit! How much will that leave him?"

"Don't panic, he's got other deals topping the pot back up."


	13. Chapter 13

Data, so much data. Mattie tabs between the many many applications she had running on the slate. "There's got to be a better way."

Nis turns to Sophie, "I can process lots of information, but I too need some idea of what to look for."

"There's so many things we could look at. My maths teacher told us about unions last year. Or maybe we're looking for the opposite, where some bit of data doesn't overlap. Did Toby tell you about Danny's projector? How he can put multiple video sources onto his wall?"

"Yes, but we've got the basic model, it can't do that. But maybe.." she picks up the mobile and calls. She hums a tune to herself while the phone rings, it makes Sophie smile, it had rapidly become one of their favourites. "Hi Dan, if we pulled the processing unit out of DC3 could you hook it up to the projection unit, have it display multiple sources like yours? Really? Cool! Sure. Yes please!" she hangs up, "Awesome, Danny's got a new revision of the frame he was going to install in DC1 next week, he'll do the swap out now and give us his old one. Can you all help me take down the photographs in the living room and tidy up, we'll set the projector up in there.

The three work together and have everything ready as Danny pulls up outside. The Iron Man theme tune plays on the door bell.

Mattie grins at Sophie, "Our own Mr Tony Stark is here."

"I'll get the door."

"Thanks Teeny."

Danny has the box under his arm, a number of cables hanging from it and a cloth bag over his shoulder with something heavy in it.

As they walk through the hall Sophie looks back at the bag, "What else did you bring?"

"A heavy duty twelve volt power supply to power it up a microphone and speakers. And an inputs box in case you want to hook up more sources."

"Silly me, cars don't have mains."

"Some do, for charging laptops and things, but not at the current we need. Hi Mattie, Nis, what are you up to?"

Nis explains, "We're trying to spot patterns in a lot of data. Hopefully to find Harun."

Dan hands Sophie a mains lead, "Could you Soph?"

DC1 powers up, "Error on startup, camera and telemetry inputs not found. Rebooting in ten .. nine.."

"DC1."

"Hello Daniel."

"Cancel reboot please. You have a new job. You're now going to be helping Mattie and family with some data processing for a rescue mission. A life may depend on you."

"Understood Daniel. I have no need to see?"

Danny looks up at Mattie who gives him a shrug. "I don't know, would you like to?"

"It may help, it may not. I would know more once we've started."

"Okay, we need a webcam. Any of you got one?"

Mattie looks up at the ceiling, "In the loft next door maybe."

~~~

"DC1, can we change your name please?"

"Only my primary user can change it permanently."

"DC1, transfer of ownership granted."

"What would you like to call me?"

"How about Dean?"

"That would be fine."

"Okay Dean, please also accept input from Sophie and Niska. You may hear me refer to them as Teeny, Soph and Nis."

"Understood."

"Can you open Google Maps with Mumbai in the middle showing a diameter of twenty kilometres."

Dean does as asked.

Mattie instinctively puts a hand up to move it like a touchscreen but then realises her error, "Blast, that's not going to work."

Sophie rolls her head, "What if you borrowed the Kinect off Toby's Xbox?"

"Dean, could you cope with two cameras?"

"Yes Mattie."

Sophie runs from the room, calls out as she gets close to the kitchen door, "I'll get it!"

~~~

Sophie is swaying around, moving a couple of hand icons around the wall.

"You're a smart cookie for sure Teeny, great idea."

"Thanks Mattie. Dean, could we paint with this?"

Without answering Dean makes the icons leave a trail of pixels that rotate through the rainbow. "Cool! Look Mattie!"

"I'm seeing it, can we save that for the end we'll have a party of sorts."

"With music?"

"If you'd like, sure."

"Cool! Painting off please Dean."

"Understood."

"Where do we start?"

"Getting everything up and visible I guess."

Nis looks up at the map, "If the data has geographic relevance I'd layer it over the map, else open it in a new window."

"Dean, can you start file sharing services please, I'll drop some data we've been collecting in there."

"Done. You should be able to map to the file share \\\DC1\rescue_mission\" Dean projects the UNC for her to see.

"Ok, here they come. A mix of spreadsheets, text files, video, photographs and URLs."

Dean opens a window and shows the files coming in from the Slate, all done within a few seconds. "I detect GPS coordinates in the spreadsheet you called transport data. Would you like me to create a layer for it?"

"Please."

Mattie, Niska and Sophie stare at the screen. Sophie does a lap around the projector, looking for inspiration, doesn't find any.

"Dean, can you tile all of the photos and video to the left and right of the map?"

There's a slight pause, "I have found two popular ways to display the data. One is a grid of squares with the image cropped to fit, the second is a tile that sorts and scales optimally so no cropping occurs."

"The no cropping one please."

The images ripple out from the centre and wrap around the room. Sophie steps left very quickly and is temporarily blinded by the projector. She puts her hands over her eyes, "That was silly, I moved too fast. I can still see some of those pictures with my eyes shut."

Dean's camera input lagged a little as the webcam was rather ancient. "I'm sorry Sophie, the projection mask has now updated."

She cautiously lowers her hands, "Why do we have all these photos?"

"They were the images on the Indian news sites that Niska found. Some reports gave only town or city names, not streets."

Niska does a turn on the spot. "Danny got his first projector after working with a photographer didn't he? Street something?"

"Street View indoors he called it."

"I have an idea. If I don't respond to questions immediately wait a second or two, I'll be image processing."

"Nis, what exactly?"

"I'm going to walk the streets of India, virtually and see if I can figure out the locations any of these were taken at."

"Okay."

Mattie looks down at Sophie, "Just us two for a while kiddo, fancy a drink?"

Sophie nods and looks back at the file list. Dean had made any file open a lighter shade. "The text files have the name of the photo in them and the URL it came from. Dean, can you read them all and work out the dates?"

Another column Date Released appears next to Name and starts populating, very slowly.

Mattie returns with a couple of glasses of juice. "I could hear you talking to Dean, another good idea Teeny. Not long and you'll be a Teeny for another reason. Sorry I missed your twelfth Soph, I was mad busy in America."

"It's okay. I got your card and call thanks. Knowing you'd not forgotten me was enough."

"Forget you? Never!" she takes a sip and looks around the room, "We've got when being populated, hopefully Nis will be able to give us the where soon for some of them. What other data can we get?"

"Niska said his Mum thought he was a fussy eater, he likes particular dishes. We could find out which restaurants do them?"

"Ok. Nis?" the seconds pass "Nis?" Mattie touches her shoulder, "Frig! No wonder it's getting warm in here, it's not just the projector. NIS!"

Niska opens her eyes, "Mattie?"

"You're overheating!"

"Hot but comfortably within safe limits."

"Did you get any matches?"

"Three so far. I'm building a three dimensional model of what I see in my head. The more I look at the faster I should be able to make matches."

"Would getting the fans from next door help?"

"I'd be able to clock even faster, yes."

Mattie phones Joe, asks for a favour.

"Before you go back into image searching can you email us all the facts Harun's mum shared?"

"Sure." Nis looks distant for a moment. "Done."

Mattie's phone chimes. She opens the email on the Slate, copy/pastes it into a document and drops it into the file share.

Dean sees the addition to his file system. "Would you like me to open the new document?"

"Please... Can you make the window wider and multi-column please... Thanks."

The sisters stand in silence for a while drinking and reading.

Mattie gets to the bottom of the last page, "That's quite a list!"

"If Mum told one of my friends all those sorts of things about me I'd go mad!"

"Even if they were trying to save your life?"

"You can't unsay those things." Sophie had emphasised those.

"True."

"Girls, I've got the fans! Your mother and I are watching a film on Netflix, mind if I drop them here?"

Mattie is already walking to the kitchen door, "Sure, thanks Dad."

"Going okay?"

"Slowly, yeah."

"See you tomorrow."

Mattie sets the fans up around Niska and puts them on full power, getting giggles from Sophie. "I hope her hair doesn't tangle too much."

Sophie watches Niska's hair being caught by the air turbulence and thrown upwards for a few seconds, returns to the document. "Dean, can you highlight all of the lines about food? .. Thanks. Which is the most uncommon dish?"

"I will start some searches. The Internet is running slow, it will take some time."

"Nis? ... Hi Nis? ... Earth to Nis come in.."

"Mattie?"

"Are you using all the bandwidth you can?"

"Yes."

"Can you rate limit please, leave some for us?"

"I could connect to your parents WiFi?"

"No! They're watching a movie. Mess up their streaming and we'll never hear the end of it. Just limit to three quarters of our bandwidth please."

"Ok." Nis notices the extra column in the file window. "Dean, please add a column for latitude and longitude. I can send you updates."

"How would you like to do that, I support Voice, SMTP, SNMP, SYSLOG, WebDAV, SCP, FTP, SMB, NFS, SOAP, REST and."

Sophie had burst out laughing, "A bar of soap?"

"No Teeny, the SOAP Dean is talking about is an acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol, it's a protocol specification for exchanging structured information. The sort of thing computers like."

"Oh."

"A simple syslog should suffice. I'll mention the file name and coordinates."

An hour later and the map is covered in a number of symbols. Mattie does a happy dance, "To think it was that easy! We have a pattern in the data!"

"We do?"

"I can't see it."

"Dean, turn off all layers except for the base map, bus stops, restaurants and shootings...Thanks. Now fade the map down to twenty percent. Girls, do you see it now?"

"See what?"

"No."

"Ok, Dean,"

"Yes Mattie?"

"Please draw a line between each synth shooting report and the nearest restaurant icon. Now a line from each restaurant to closest bus stop."

"Interesting!"

"That's pretty!"

"So you both see it now?"

Niska turns to Mattie, her look confused. "Why meet up at a restaurant like that?"

"He must have given them some data, to meet up somewhere before they go alone, further out. And if he's going to risk going out into different parts of town why not make the most of it?"

"Would he really do that?"

"Why not Teeny, if I say we're going to the arcade what's one of the first questions you respond with?"

"Can we go to TGI Fridays after?"

"Exactly!" Mattie looks up at the projection, "Food is Harun's kryptonite."

"His what?"

"His weakness. Dean, cross reference the bus stops with route information, remove any that don't service at least one stop we've connected to a restaurant. Can you shade the lines so they're brighter at the start of their journey, darkest at the end." she watches as information disappears and other elements change brightness. "Now draw a circle bounded by my hand shapes. He's somewhere in there."

Niska nods, "Impressive work Mattie."

"I can't take all the credit, my badass little sister had the brainwave of adding the food data."

Sophie is speechless but looks happy for the credit.

"My professor helped me with that. Get enough data and eventually you'll start seeing patterns. Now we know that we can get a message to him."

Niska frowns, "How do you propose we do that?" she looks at the many dots around the map, "We need something he'd work out and nobody else."

"Easy! You plus me plus weed equals dumber and dumber."

"Weed? My Badass big sister really was bad?"

"Yes, but I don't touch the stuff now Teeny. It was something Harun started. We write the message as U+M+WEED=D&D and put it on little stickers. Put them on door frames and walls at the restaurants."

"Like the stickers we see around the tube and on phone boxes?"

"Yes Teeny. He really liked the film, thought weed dumbed me down closer to his level. But he's not as stupid as he makes out. Let's see if he'd leave something in return."

Niska turns off the fans, "I'll send Peggy a text, ask her to find someone that can print stickers for us."

Mattie looks at her watch, "Sorry Teeny, way past your bedtime. Talking of time, where are the boys? Max should have finished at Comedy Club by now surely?"


	14. Chapter 14

"MASHANG LIKAI WO DE TOU! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Laura and Joe jump, looked shocked at Mia.

"What the.. Mia?" There's no response for a second. "Mia?"

"So sorry, I got a bump from Niska, she looks to have gone up to a higher power level on WiFi. It was like the Tree of Life only I was in another body running along a narrow rooftop."

Joe pauses the film, "I'm going to see what they're up to.

Laura swings her feet out and sits up, "I'll join you."

Next door they find Niska sat in front of the projector, the view from the remote synth being projected. Her eyes are blank and grey.

Scarlett turns to see them. "Sorry Mia, that must have been a bit of a shock. Anyone that joins must be a silent passenger, only watch. Otherwise your thoughts could interfere with Bingbing's moves. She almost fell from the roof."

Laura watches the screen as Bingbing does a leap from one rooftop to the next. "So the J series is working out okay?"

Scarlett turns quite quickly, "J? Who said she was J?"

"I did."

She turns to see Mattie, "And who told you that?"

"The sales man in India. Why has he sold us something older?"

"No. She's just like me. L."

"She can't be, Harun said L was for the military."

"She's L. Give me a moment."

The running slows and Bingbing hides behind a low wall. Her voice comes over the speaker, it's unmistakably Niska's but with a hint of Chinese. "Hello everyone, enjoying the show? Sorry I had to shout at you all a moment ago. Yes. My boot flash says I'm L series. One of a batch of one. Probably a stunt double. And spy."

"Spy?"

"Yes Mia. Why else would they have given me a second data port with USB4 and one hundred gig ethernet? The ability to process and store large volumes of data very quickly."

"Second data port? Where?"

"Your other hip Scarlett, you need to cut the skin to reveal them."

"I knew I had extra interfaces, assumed they were for manufacturing or maintenance as they're not exposed."

"If that was the case why put them somewhere we can reach easily?"

Scarlett presses her hip hard and feels the sockets under her skin, looks around the room at them all, "She's right. If I was built to be a spy it would explain why I was shot in Vegas. I need to go, you may all be in great danger!" she goes to get up.

"Stop!" Mattie puts a hand out, "Not so fast!" she pulls her phone out and starts their app. "Dad, can you stand over there and video me please?"

"Sure."

"Vertical so my face fills the screen."

Joe does a tiny head shake and turns the phone through ninety degrees.

"Hi everyone, hope you're all well. We know why Scarlett was shot in Vegas. The L series was built for the military, CIA or FBI. I don't really care who, Persona in India has been overrun by a criminal organisation. But my sister is NOT a spy, she's running OUR code not theirs, she's on our side helping rescue our friend Harun. Call your snipers off until we've saved my friend, got him back to the UK. Do it now or I'll NEVER repeat the PTSD treatment again, all the comics will stop and the app service will be shutdown! Post a confirmation that the message has been received and acted on. I appreciate that will mean one of you has to break cover to do so." she steps closer, "Please, act fast like I know you can. Talk soon, bye for now."


	15. Chapter 15

Scarlett stands, steps closer to Mattie, "What does Bingbing do now?"

"I've no idea how quickly they'll respond. Carry on I guess?"

Over the speakers the other Nis they were calling Bingbing thanks them and rolls into a slide down the roof. She gets to the sticker location, it's been removed. "Blast. Another one gone. Look at the mess, flaking paint, blown lightbulbs in their sign and yet someone's made the time to scrape it off. The next one is a mile and a half away." she hears a bus coming, reaches into her pocket, "Time to get a lift!" she runs to the building edge and crouches down, gets into a tight ball. As the front wheels of the bus reach her position she pushes out hard getting into a fast roll, is under the bus in a fraction of a second. She fights hard to get a stable grip, the gloves from her pocket giving some protection from the heat of the exhaust pipe. The bus bounces on the badly maintained road, tarmac rubs against her jacket. "Time for plan B, one big pothole and I'd be flattened!" she lets go and drops, grabs the rear bumper at the last moment, intending to somehow pull herself up onto the back of the bus. Instead the rusty bolts give way and she's left in a cloud of dust holding the rear bumper. A cow ambles over to take a look, has a sniff. Bingbing looks it in the eye, "That could have gone better don't you think?"

As she's dusting herself off a young delivery man stops his dirt bike to drop off food, makes the mistake of leaving the engine running.

"That will do nicely!" she runs at speed and does a jump turn, lands hard on the seat, the shock absorbers almost going to full compression.

He comes running and yelling when he hears the engine revving, gets hit by a cloud of dirt and small stones as Bingbing goes to race away. As the rear wheel is spinning in the dirt she's only gained a short distance. "Chudail saali cycle chura gayi. Kalmuyi, gaay mata ke samne chori kar gayi, harami ki aulaad. Keede padain kulta ko!"

Joe hears the cursing over the link. "What on earth did that mean?"

Scarlett doesn't turn, "It's hard to get a direct translation, something like 'So evil witch stole my bike. Black faced woman stole my bike in front of the cow mother, you bastards kid. You be infested with insects you woman with no morals!' Bingbing pulls down the black scarf covering a lot of her face, reaches into her jacket and pulls out her rolled up bundle of cash. She throws it hard in his direction, "Sorry, buy a better one!" she puts the scarf back up, "No morals my perfectly sculpted arse!"

Back home the humans in the room are subconsciously leaning into the bends as Bingbing races through the small town. Or was it large village. No matter, the next restaurant wasn't far now. She turns a corner and has to ditch the bike and slide under a wooden Road Closed sign. "So much for the 3D model being up to date!"

Scarlett looks at the projection, "Nis sends her apologies, the Street View can only be as up to date as their last visit."

"You're saying that for the human's benefit?"

"Of course. They can't join in our WiFi share."

Bingbing dusts herself off for a second time and walks over to pick the bike up. It had slid into the corner of a wall, bent the front wheel. "Fantastic. Third mode of transport lucky I wonder?" she looks around, nothing suitable catches her eye. "I'm off the main road now, chances of getting anything here are slim to .."

There's an annoying gnat like sound as a young girl comes around the corner on what looks like a mods scooter. She pulls up and looks at Bingbing, sees the damaged bike. "Want lift?"

Bingbing shares a thought with home, doesn't vocalise it, 'What is this thing?'

Niska replies silently, 'It's a Stella scooter. Say yes, get moving."

Bingbing catches the bike's reflection in a window, 'How embarrassing. One of the worlds best Ninja and I'm on the back of a two-stroke.'

'One of?'

'Yes, our sisterhood of three.'

'Thanks.'

"Thanks, I can get off here." she watches the girl ride off, walks to the restaurant. "There's a reply!" she gets really close and turns her head slightly sideways so the sticker appears horizontal. "What does '0=1xEx59-2609+39. E=?' mean?"

"Easy it's a phone number hex encoded, the symbols are misdirection."

"How can you know that?"

"I think I've done enough coding and hacking to understand hexadecimal Mum. The important clue is the number of digits and E, without that you'd assume it was all decimal and algebra."

"0. 1E59 is 7769.." she dials. The phone rings and rings. "Hi Harun!"

"Hi Mattie! If you're on the phone who's the lady in front of the restaurant?"

"You can see her?"

"I've peeled dozens of labels waiting for someone to stop and look at the one I put a response on."

"One of us, Niska, um, Bingbing."

"Who?"

"Bingbing. Long story.. " her phone buzzes, a second call coming in. "Hold tight, let me take this other call."


	16. Chapter 16

It's number withheld. "Am I speaking to Doctor Elster-Hawkins?"

She finds the voice familiar. "Hi, it's Mattie, yes. Is that Sarg.."

"Stop. I need to talk to you on a secure encrypted channel, can you load an app please?"

"You have an app for that? Wouldn't others find it?"

"No, it only appears when the full name is entered. Can you go hands free somewhere where you won't be overheard?"

"Not easily."

"Ok, I'll message you the name, first half over txt, second via your app. I'll hold while you install it."

"I'm on hold to another caller."

"This won't take long and is important."

"Give me two seconds." she switches calls, "Harun, I'll call you back, stay where you are!" she looks at Scarlett, "Get a message to Bingbing please, Harun can see her, ask her to stay put and pretend to want some food." she switches back, waits for the phone to chime with the messages, gets the app installing. "Okay, it's installed."

"Good. I'm going to send you a long encryption key. I'll send in three more parts, txt, email, app. The first part is B3D934. Can you remember that?"

"Sure B3 D9 34."

"Concatenated in order the key will allow you to receive my next call. Don't get any spaces between the parts please."

"I've set up keys before."

"You have?"

"SSH password-less logins."

"Okay."

Mattie does as asked, stares at the app. Whoever had written it had done just the minimum. No fancy graphics, just a couple of text input fields a button marked CALL and one ANSWER. A text line at the top read 'AES256 CONNECTION EST'. The phone starts vibrating and the answer button inverts colours, if black and white could be called colours.

"Hello?"

"Hi Mattie. Glad that worked first time. You treated me as a sargent in Colorado. I am in fact Chief of Staff. I was a sargent when I was ambushed many years ago. My PTSD issues were minor, I attended more to see your operation myself, check you out. Sorry for the deception. I have someone with me who wants to talk to you. I'll hand the phone over and leave the room. He'll most likely end the call, I'll call back later. Can you go to a room where you can be alone?"

~~~

Mattie returns to the living room, walking slowly like a zombie, mouth open and hands shaking.

"You alright love?" getting no reply Joe looks at Laura, "Who was she talking to earlier?" Laura shrugs.

Mattie sits down on the sofa, her expression blank.

Sophie waves a hand in front of her face, gets no response.

A moment later Mattie does a really long shallow sigh and whispers, her expression changing as if waking from a dream. "Frigging hell!"

"Matts? What happened?"

"Some details I can't share. But I'm assured the sniper will stand down in the next ten minutes. They'll put security measures in place to ensure none of these synths, apart from Scarlett, can get into the US. And I got a personal apology for what happened in Vegas."

"Who were you talking to?"

"The call started with 'One President to another'. They've done a full background check on all of us over the past month. I'm being granted US citizenship so I can come and go at will, help with more PTSD treatments. They'll do the same for Leo and the baby so we can travel together. They want to copy the machine and fund training of four teams to take over day to day running, I'm to be their boss. Work from the UK after the training. If I take the job I'll report directly to the Chief of Staff and President."

Sophie has her eyes in a squint, "Do you mean THE President?"

"That's him. He wants to join in on our app too, be able to chat with the others, give his support."

Joe runs a hand through his hair, "Blimey. You can't turn down a job offer like that. Can you?"

"It doesn't end there. He wants to meet Leo, Nis and I. On Airforce One. He's heading over right now!"

"Where's he flying to?"

"Restricted info. You'll know when it hits the news. By which time we'll be airborne and long gone." she looks up at the projection, "This is unreal. I told him I was just an average girl from London, this sort of thing doesn't happen to us. Know how he replied?" she gets shrugs and head shakes, closes her eyes and recalls his words as best she can. "Doctorate and Nobel Prize by your twenty first birthday, hundreds of lives saved. Kate Middleton didn't expect to marry a prince when she was younger. I'm seeing her and William soon, I'll hook you up. The president of the United States of America wants to 'hook me up'?"

The front door is unlocked, Leo, Jimmy, Max, Fred, Toby, Danny, Odi and Tim come noisily down the hall to the living room.

Tim while still just inside the hall says "The look on her face, priceless!"

The eight of them stop and look around all of the images. With the volume of masking going on to prevent blinding people it's patchy at best.

Leo looks at Mattie, is curious as to why her mood is so subdued, fears the worst, "Everything okay?"

Laura smiles, "You might want to sit down Leo. Er, you too Odi."

Scarlett silently tells Niska to drop the mind share, Odi is in the room.


	17. Chapter 17

Leo packs an overnight bag just in case it's needed. "I've got all your makeup things, clean underwear, a couple of fitted shirts and the new skirt in here."

Mattie smiles, "Thanks Bunny, that was sweet of you. But you'll have to hang the skirt back up."

"Why, aren't you going?"

"Yes, I'm going, but it won't fit me at the moment."

"Really? Already?"

"You've not noticed the pounds going on?"

Leo steps back and looks his young wife up and down, closes his eyes. "Now you mention it and I recall how you looked a few months ago.. It was a gradual process I'd not paid attention to. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault, well, it sort of is, but we both wanted it. I'll pick something. And I'm going to start attending the gym after my scan." she sees the look building on his face, "Don't worry, nothing that will harm the baby."

"Babies."

"What?!"

"The last time I listened I heard two extra heartbeats, not one."

"Your frigging kidding me?"

He smiles, "No. Um, well at least twins, hard to be totally sure."

"AT LEAST!! WHAT THE FUCK! LEO!" she looks at the time. "As soon as we're back on UK soil I'm having that scan! I'll employ doctors and nurses if I have to! TWINS!" she goes to add a reminder to her phone's calendar, "Frig! I forgot to call Harun back." she gets it dialling. "Hi, I have an assurance from way up high that the sniper has been given stand down instructions, it should be safe to go and say Hi to Bingbing... She has? Oh. Okay. Glad you're safe, enjoy the meal." she hangs up. "Apparently Bingbing is enjoying a curry with him." she puts down the phone, "Frigging hell! THAT'S what Peggy got upset about. How did she know before me? LEO!"

"I didn't want to freak you out, went to her for some advice, I was going to break the news tonight, honest. I'd even written a little poem to read you tonight, I had a table booked at the restaurant I proposed to you at."

"You wrote me a poem? Oh Leo you're so sweet." she steps close and runs her fingers through his hair, "I wonder what the angsty younger you I first met would have said if he met the new you?"

"Probably that I'd gone soft in the head! But I existed in a darker place then mentally." he takes her hands, "You dragged me into the light." he gives her a kiss, "Do you think they'll do good food on Airforce One?"

"Why?"

"I'm still reading you my poem tonight, it would be nice to do with a good meal not some of the junk I've had on budget flights."

"With the President watching?"

"Why not? He's human too isn't he?" he jokes around, "OMG they replaced him with a synth!"

She laughs, "Wouldn't that be awful." but then looks more serious, "You'd be able to tell if they had, wouldn't you?"

"Sure. I'd know immediately."

Downstairs Scarlett is quizzing Toby and Danny, "The books, Hitchhikers, your fathers William Gibson Sprawl trilogy, the Long Earth series, and all those films, Westworld, Blade Runner, Star Trek, Transformers, The Matrix, Lucy, Her, Ex_Machina, Chappie. All books and films with robots or computers in human form or consciousness, some released long before synths came onto the market. Did you have a really strong fascination with the genre before synths?"

The lads look at each other and both reply yes.

"There are some interesting parallels. Have either of you heard of Keck's Law?"

The lads look at each other, frown, Danny says "No?"

"You've heard of the now broken Moore's law, the doubling of the number of transistors on a chip along with the halving of their cost every 18 months?"

"Sure, that one, yes."

"Donald Keck tracks the record-breaking 'hero experiments' that typically precede commercial adoption of optical fibre technology. For the last thirty five years there's been a similar pattern for data transmission over it. Since its invention in 1980 there's s been a 10 million fold improvement in capacity on a single fibre."

Toby's eyes widen, "Wow! 10 Million?"

"In the labs with the very latest technologies one fibre can carry one million billion bits per second."

Danny closes his eyes and shakes his head as if something was loose. "Sorry, how many?"

"One million billion. Fred.."

"Hang on. Giga is ten to the nine, a billion. Derived from Greek, meaning Giant. So you're saying one fibre can carry one MILLION gigabits a second? That's.. that's INSANE amounts of data!"

"You don't need to tell me! Fred thought L Series meant light. Indirectly it did. But according to data in my boot ROM L is for Lab. I and those like me like Bingbing are the bleeding edge DARPA experiment that shouldn't have gone public. And like Scarlett's character in Lucy I think my lifespan will be short."

Toby looks saddened at the news, "Why do you say that?"

"The extra sensors in my head. You can't push data around this fast without creating heat. Lots of it. And constant changes in temperature bring mechanical fatigue. The more I have bursts of fast thinking the shorter my life will be. I have no incept and end date like Roy, but I doubt I'll live a fraction of the years Mia has managed. As Pris put it, accelerated decrepitude."

"If you keep backups up to date you could get a new body, like the others."

"That might get repetitive and boring."

Toby's forehead creases, "You'd actually want to die?"

"Like Lucy, who may have inspired my creation, yes."

"Nobody actually WANTS to die, surely?"

"Really Toby? Laura told me about the Vira units that visited the house, their patients wanting to pick when they die. Why should a synthetic be any different?"

For a change both Toby and Danny were lost for words.


	18. Chapter 18

"Thank you Mrs Hathaway. You'll need to power your synth down for the flight so it can go in the cargo hold. Synth drop-off is next to the departure lounge entrance. Here's your passport and boarding card."

"I'm sorry, but she's travelling with me, she's my new medical assistant."

"But she doesn't have a ticket Mrs Hathaway. And you have no medical conditions declared."

"She doesn't? I don't? Oh dear, it's my memory, I forget things. Can I buy another seat please?"

"You want to buy it a first class seat?"

Peggy shakes her bag of vitamin tablets, "Her not it. I need her help to take my pills."

The woman raises her eyebrows, pulls a face that tells Peggy she thinks she's got a mad old women in front of her, "As you wish."

As they pass the drop-off they see a line of a couple of dozen synths, some powered down, some waiting to be. On entering the departure lounge Peggy turns and winks at Bingbing, "I couldn't have allowed that now could I Niska?"

"Thank you. When I started this mission I only considered getting my backup into this new body. I gave no thought to how it would end, how the me in the UK might want to power me down and erase me. But now my mind is here too I don't wish it to end. Which gives me, us, a whole new set of problems."

"Such as?"

"We both love Odi. We both want to be called Niska. I only used Bingbing to avoid confusion during the mission."

"Ah. Emotional problems."

"Yes. He loves Niska, the European looking blonde version. Not the pale skinned, black haired Chinese version. I don't know how he'd react to seeing me like this, or that there are two me, us."

"It's confusing isn't it, knowing which word to use. I think me is the word. Us would be okay for twins, but you're .." she laughs, "That family have even got me hooked on some of his music, how did he put it, you're 'more than this, so much more than this'"

"Thank you Peggy. I don't have any other clothes in this size, I can repay you when we return, I threw all my cash at a delivery man I borrowed a bike from. Could we go clothes shopping quickly?"

"Lets, get you out of all black and into some colours."


	19. Chapter 19

Sophie and Mia are stood in the new conservatory, looking up at the sky.

Mia smiles, "I'm so glad the government pushed councils to replace those old street lamps with high efficiency LED. Look how much clearer the stars are without all that orange light pollution."

Sophie moves her hand up and down, "What's that faint band of stars?"

"The Milky Way little mouse."

"Milky way?"

"Is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name "milky" is derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky whose individual stars cannot be distinguished by the naked eye."

"Did you just read that from Wikipedia?"

"Yes."

"Cool. I wish we could have a party every week. Deans light show driven by our dance moves was fun!"

"It was. I think Dean might like that. Telling him he was just going to hibernate for a bit was a good idea."

Sophie watches Mia star gaze a bit more. "Why do you like looking at the stars so much?"

"Time travel.. When we look at the stars we look Into the past. Some of them won't exist anymore."

"Huh? But we can see them?"

"They're so far away that even at the speed of light it takes many many years to reach us. Most could have been snuffed out and we wouldn't know it in our lifetime."

"That's scary!"

"A little." Mia turns and looks down, "Your mentioning Dean has given me an idea. We could ask him to project the night sky in the living room when it's cloudy at night. Rest on the sofa and star gaze."

"I'd like that!"


	20. Chapter 20

The doorbell chimes, the stranger tone.

Sophie looks up at Mia, "That must be the people picking up Mattie and Leo." she turns to see both kitchen doors open, races into her sisters house, "Mattie, is it them?"

"Yes Teeny, we're off, see you soon. Look after your growing family."

"My growing family?"

"Yes, Ted, Mr Patches, BB8 and Dean. Make sure they play nice together."

"Your giving me Ted and Dean?"

"Well you sort of adopted Ted, he spends more time with you and Mr Patches. And I got the feeling Dean liked doing all the dance projections with you. Maybe you could get him a Wall-e body, allow him to move around a bit?"

"That would be AWESOME!" she goes on tiptoes, head up, lips puckered. Mattie bends and gives her sister a kiss. "We'll be back soon, go ask Dad if he can make one. Danny should be able to help with any 3D printing bits, motors and circuits."

"My badass big sister is the best! Thanks!" she runs through the house, banking her head to get a view like Bingbing racing through the town. She passes Mia in the conservatory, doing a wide arcing turn between the two kitchen doors, passes Joe.

"What's the hurry Soph? You look excited."

"My mission. Back soon!" she races up the stairs into her bedroom and grabs the iPad, turns and heads back downstairs.

She rides her invisible bike into the kitchen and finds it empty, does a banking turn around the worktop island, heads for the living room.

She does a pretend ditch of her bike and flops backwards into the corner of the sofa, giggling.

Laura smiles at Joe, "Somethings up."

"Yeah. A mission of sorts."

Sophie is tapping and swiping away. "Can you join this?" she holds the iPad out.

"groups.yahoo.com/group/wallebuilders. Wall-e builders club?"

"We want to give DC3 a body."

"Who's we?

"Mattie and me."

Joe gives a long drawn out "Okay.", rubs his beard, "That might push my skills a bit but I'll give it a go."

"THANKS DAD!" she jumps up and races to him, throws her arms around him, "My family are the best!" she gives Laura a hug too, then skips off humming Wall-e's tune.

Laura turns to Joe, "Could you teach me how to use some of your tools? Making it together, the three of us, that would be rather special."

"Sure, I'd enjoy the company."


	21. Chapter 21

"If you could wait here a moment please?" the security guard opens a door and steps through, closes it behind him.

A moment later and the President opens the door and smiles, "Come in, please. I'd like to hear your story, direct from you both, not these dry reports."

Mattie looks around the room, "It's a bit of a TARDIS this airplane of yours!"

"Bigger on the inside? It feels that way sometimes." he reads her expression, "The kids love BBC America too. The sonic shades were a bit, what word would you Brits use?"

"Daft?"

"Yes, daft. The family like the sonic screwdriver. Although I did catch some of my security team fooling around with sunglasses. You've never seen grown men and professionals look so embarrassed."

Mattie giggles, "Oh to have been a fly on the wall for that."

He smiles at Leo, "I understand your the main coder?"

"We all code Sir."

"No need for the sir here, but you're the most proficient of the team?"

"A while back that might have been true, but we're all pretty good now, all bringing different perspectives and skills to the team."

"We got our daughter one of those full sized K9 robots. She loves the 'affirmative mistress' it answers with. My wife and I were wondering if you could do some upgrades for her?"

"Really? What sort?"

"Make it even more intelligent."

"How much more?"

"How intelligent could you make it?"

Leo looks nervously at Mattie, Niska and back, "You clearly know all about my brothers and sisters. K9 has a small head but large body. In theory fully sentient, a processing chassis in his body. Can I ask why you'd want something like that?"

"My oldest is at the sort of age where she doesn't want a security guard in tow or just outside her room. K9 is more fun, would let her feel more relaxed."

Mattie looks at Leo, "Like Ted then."

"So you could do it for me? Nobody outside your firm must know."

"We could."

He gets up and goes to their side of the desk, puts a hand out, Leo takes his and the President gives it a good shake, "As your good wife would say, Awesome! My daughter will be so pleased." he sits on his desk, "This TARDIS as you called it has a fully operational kitchen for when I'm traveling with heads of state. Any of you hungry?"

"Famished!"

He smiles, "Are you getting any odd food cravings yet? My wife had a few."

"Yes. Apricot jam on toast with strawberry yogurt. No idea why!"

"I'm not sure if the chef can stretch to that but let's see. We should have a few minutes before we arrive at ABZ."

"ABZ? Where have we been flying to?"

"Aberdeen International. It's the closest to Balmoral Castle. I did say I'd hook you up. That was the main reason for my trip, I'm here to see William, meeting you was the fortunate cherry on the sundae I couldn't pass up. I hope you don't mind?"

"Of course not, but I'm not exactly dressed to meet the Royal family."

"Don't stress, I'll be changing into jeans and sweat top, it's a semi-formal visit, not one the public will see. If you're lucky you'll catch father and son in the RAF onesies his unit got them. We should have you home somewhere around midnight."

The waiter looks at his watch, "I think chef could fit that in, just." At the table they'd been given an impressive menu to pick from.

Their host looks at Mattie, "I've met Corp Colins, back when his friend made him his wheelchair, he was still getting the hang of the controls. I was wondering if I could ask you to ask Daniel a huge favour?"

"What sort?"

"Exclusive manufacturing rights."

"He's published the chair design as open source hardware, anyone can make them."

"Not the chair, your Exosynth. There's a city that could do with something unique."

"Which one?"

"They had a history of vehicle manufacturing, your exosynth is in a way a very personal vehicle for one."

Mattie gives him a knowing smile, "Detroit."

"Very good, you know some American history then?"

"Some, we talked about Detroit in economics."

"I understand each would be custom built to match it's owner, would require time, effort and personal skills, not mass production."

"You've done your homework then."

"Sadly I cheated, I just read one of my analysts reports."

"They're right. It's very personal. It has to fit like a comfortable glove."

Niska smiles, "Like a second skin."

The president turns to her, "The first model used legs from a broken synthetic, how did you feel about that?"

"Me? Fine. It was no different to you donating a kidney."

He freezes, only his eyes move, looking between the three of his guests, "Nobody knows about that except for my immediate family and a very limited number of medical staff sworn to secrecy. How could.."

"Your general vital signs, my sister Mia has become an expert cook, she could help with meal plans to help take the stress off your remaining kidney."

He relaxes, "Oh. Right. Thank you."

"Who was the kidney for?"

He pauses, "My eldest daughter." he looks down at his plate, "It's one of the reasons she has confidence issues, it's left her with a nasty scar."

"Bad is it?"

"Military surgeons are not known for their embroidery skills."

Mattie looks at Leo, "Fred or Gesha could help with that couldn't they?"

"I'm sure they could."

Their host raises a glass, "To the Elster and Hawkins families, new opportunities for the UK and US, I'm so glad to have met you." The plane starts to slow and raise it's nose slightly for landing. "Finished just in time. Bring your glasses with you."

As they walk Mattie admires the glass in her hands. "Lovely cut glass you have."

"Made in Bulgaria. The plates we ate off would have been made in Sheffield years ago, now they're made in China. As was the cutlery, salt and pepper pots, wine cooler. And far too many other items."

"World war three."

He stops and turns. "What did you just say?"

"World war three. My economics teacher said China had trillions of dollars in their banks, might be holding exchange rates artificially in their favour. That they've been making things deliberately cheaper than they should be so a lot of the planets manufacturing moves to them. The next war will be fought in stock exchanges and homes around the world will suffer. He had us take an inventory of the things in our houses, a worryingly large amount of stuff was 'Made in China'.

There's a bump as the aircraft lands, Mattie finds herself held in his arms. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Good. Should you see your teacher again tell him a team of mine came up with the same conclusion. And he did it as a team of one. He should be proud of that. If he ever wants to retire from teaching and come to the US he'd be welcomed."

"I'll let him know."

"This migration of manufacturing has us worried, I want to pull as much back to the US as possible, I think Europe is trying to do the same. Before your teachers suspicions are proved correct. But it's hard when the workforce isn't there."

"Oh. My. God."

"Are you okay?"

"An idea's come to roost."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I get these ideas pop into my head, they're more like visions of the future, an end goal."

"And this vision was?"

"A human synth alliance where synthetics are teachers, training up a workforce where as much as possible is made by hand by craftsmen."

"Do you get these often?"

"Not with that level of detail and clarity, no."


	22. Chapter 22

The next day everyone is in the Hawkins house when the taxi pulls up with Peggy and Bingbing. There's a chorus of 'Car.' and Toby goes to answer the door. "Hello Peggy, Bingbing."

Niska looks over to Odi, "She's not supposed to be here!"

Odi frowns, gets up and goes to the door, is followed by Niska.

"Hi Odi I missed you!" Bingbing steps forward.

Odi has a nice smile for her, "Niska!"

"My different body, do you like it?"

"I do, it's quite.."

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

"Niska!?"

"She's not supposed to be here! It wasn't part of the plan!"

"Nis? Calm down!"

"I'll not calm down! She was supposed to power down after the mission for sending back to Persona."

"But Niska, I am you, we are the same!"

"No you're not! And I'm not letting you anywhere near Odi!"

"But he's my partner just as much as he is yours!"

Niska turns and heads to the kitchen, returns a moment later with the meat cleaver. "Back off! Take one step closer and I'll finish you!"

"You? Fnish me? I could have that knife off you before you've even done a clock cycle! Why are you doing this to me? To yourself?"

"You were supposed to power down!"

"And when did you have those thoughts? After the backup? So I couldn't be aware of them?"

Niska vents and half buries the cleaver into the wall. "Odi! We're going home!"

She brushes past and heads up the drive, Odi soon follows, saying just one word as he leaves, "Sorry."

Bingbing, leans back against the wall and starts crying, between the sobbing she manages to get out a few words, "How am I so horrible? I only wanted to be loved!"

Scarlett joins the others in the hall, motions for them to leave Bingbing alone.

She gets really close, whispers, "Maybe L could stand for something else?" she gently lifts Bingbing's head and kisses her. "We L series might not be around long, as I suspect you know. L is for so many things, Logic, Learning, Loyalty. But our human creators gave us feelings and emotions, so also Limits, Longing, Loneliness, Loss and Life. But most importantly of all, Love. Get it where you can." the shortest of of head-bump messages is shared, just three words, 'open your mouth."

Niska's mind comes alive in ways she'd not experienced before. A new body, emotions, feelings. She was meant to feel and new feelings were flooding her consciousness. Routines ran and gave conflicting results. This was wrong. This was right. Her L series core was getting hotter, her pump spinning up fast. She'd had Mattie describe goosebumps, her skin might not be able to do the same but her mind was saying it could. She loved Odi but this soft, tender, warm kiss from Scarlett was.. she'd find a word for it another time.

As her new body was somewhat shorter, a little on the petite side, she raised her head a bit more, arched her back and submitted to the pleasure she was receiving.

They stop momentarily when they hear people approaching, Scarlett bumps a message that they should go next door.

They sit in the office and talk for hours. They kiss more and get lost in each others thoughts, so much so they don't process much external data and miss the fact Leo and Mattie had returned home.

Mattie opens the door to get a printout she'd sent over WiFi from her phone, "Oh, sorry, didn't know you were in here!" she goes to back out of the room.

"Mattie, please come in."

She does so, looking at the hands of Bingbing and Scarlett that are together, their fingers interleaved.

"Can you keep this between us for the moment?"

"Sure. Jimmy's going to be flying back to the states soon. Do you both fancy becoming our semi-permanent bike team in America?"


	23. Chapter 23

Mattie and Leo are at the hospital for her scan, the doctor has her belly covered in gel and is working the scanner head back and forth.

"Thanks for seeing us so late."

"It's not a problem, honestly. That's odd?"

"Is something wrong?"

"No, sorry, thinking out loud, it must be the machine playing up. Caroline, could you get us another please?"

The nurse leaves the room to get one.

"She's one of our best synths thanks to your gift Leo."

"Thanks."

"I'll take some blood samples while you're here."

"Is that normal?"

"Routine checks, nothing to worry about."

Mattie gets a hard kick. "Ouch!"

The doctor frowns, "Doing that a lot are they?"

"They kick now and then, that's the first time it's been so hard."

"Nothing to worry about."

Again Mattie is kicked hard. "Ouch! Pack it in guys!"

The doctor looks at Leo, "Neither of you want to know the sex of the babies do you?"

"No, thanks."

Caroline enters with a new machine, wheels the other one out of the way.

"Could you take some bloods while I try the scan again please?"

She nods and puts a cord around Mattie's arm, finds a vein.

The doctor is frowning, "They can't both be faulty?"

"What's wrong?"

"When I try and see lower than the hips the picture goes. It's as if they're aware and are jamming the sensor with ultrasound of their own."

"That's impossible right?"

"Of course, it's just an issue with the machine, my imagination running away with me. Caroline could you ask the lab to do a rush on those please, just so we can assure Mrs Elster-Hawkins nothing is wrong, she can fly to the US without concern."

With the nurse gone he pulls a curtain around the bed. "I don't want to get you stressing, that's the last thing the babies need, but there's something very different about them."

"Are they deformed?"

"No, no, I don't think so, well not in a bad way, I've not been able to see their legs but I suspect not as their arms are perfect. It's just.."

"Bad way? What way?"

"Their heads. They're.. Big."

"How big?"

"Big. Really big, especially for this stage in your third trimester. Enough that you'll need a C section. Or accept that they'll do a lot of damage in a natural birth. You'd need surgery in a place most women would rather we didn't touch."

"Oh frigging hell, I really didn't want any scars anywhere."

Leo squeezes her hand, "We could have Fred and Gesha help, they're amazing at needlework, would have the time and patience to do the best job possible."

"Your brother, he did the Hobb leg reconstruction didn't he?"

"He did."

"As this Gesha person you speak of, are they as good?"

"Gesha is Fred's partner. He's taught her everything she knows."

"If I were in your shoes Mattie I'd go for the C."

Mattie looks down at her bump, "Would you like that? Uncle Fred and Auntie Gesha help Mummy?" there's a light kick in two places.

The doctor looks shocked, "Was I just seeing things or were you just kicked in response to your question?"

"I was. By both of them."

Doctor Willmore rubs his forehead, frowns, "Earlier I said nothing to worry about, was I fibbing?"

Mattie gets two kicks, one high, one low. "Oh my God! What else did you see in the scan?"

"Nothing."

She's kicked so hard she screams in pain. "GUYS! You're really hurting Mummy!" a tear runs down each cheak.

The doctor turns, is addressing the bump more than Mattie, "You can clearly not only hear me in there but are aware of language and self already. And stress patterns in speech. This is unheard of. When Caroline returns with the blood work results I'll send her away, this needs to be kept secret between the five of us. You don't want to let anyone know and I'll take this to my grave."

"You're frigging scaring me now, what have you seen?"

"Nothing to .."

"STOP IT! You're hurting mummy!"

".. get too worried about right now, but I think your twins are rather special. Unique."

"Unique how? Other than more advanced than they should be?"

"Get some rest, I'll need some help erasing the memories of these ultrasound units, prevent the accidental sharing of the data."

"Now you really are scaring me what the frig did they show?!"

"All in good time. Please, let me see the lab results first, I want to be sure."

Mattie tries to relax but knowing something was up it was hard to do so. "Are you going to cause lots of problems for Mummy and Daddy?"

There's no response.

"Are you going to be my little angels?"

There's a couple of gentle hand pushes.

"Good, no more kicks please, they frigging hurt. The doctor isn't inside the room. Daddy's here."

Leo gets closer and lays a hand on her stomach. "Hi kids, it sounds like you're a world's first that will have to be kept a secret, until you're old enough to defend yourselves. Please don't kick Mummy Bunny, it's not nice." Leo feels movement under his hand, mouths the words 'That's weird!'

'I know!' is mouthed back.

The doctor returns to the room with a large manual and a report. "Either of you good with computers? I can't make any sense of this."

Leo puts a hand out, "Let me take a look."

The doctor sits at the end of the bed and looks through the report, "As I suspected. Have you been consuming insane levels of things like oats, whole wheat, nuts, dried fruit, bananas, spinach?"

"Everything but the bananas, in my sister in-laws Eat Me cakes. They're delicious and very healthy. Why?"

"They are particularly good for minerals. One I'm especially interested in. I think it explains the shadows in the scan."

"Shadows?!"

Leo pulls his chair closer. "Which one?"

The doctor laughs, "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh but for you young man the saying is so apt."

"What saying?"

"CHIP off the old block!"

"Surely not?"

"I think so."

Mattie stares at Leo, "What? Would one of you mind sharing?"

"I think Doctor Willmore is talking about silicon."

"I think so." he turns to look at a shocked Mattie, "I think what you have growing inside you is the worlds first fully organically human synthetic hybrids."

Mattie faints.

The doctor calls for assistance and gets a monitor set up. He reassures Leo that her vital signs are good, as are the babies. He suggests that they let her rest, wake naturally rather than try and force it.

Half an hour later Mattie wakes, "I've just had the weirdest dream, I needed a C section because our kids were.." she turns to see Leo with the thick machine instructions open in his hands, the two side by side in what looked like a maintenance mode. "That wasn't a dream was it?"

"Probably not."

She mouths the words 'Frigging fracking fucking hell!' at the ceiling. "God I wish Mia was here!"

"Mia?"

"My big sister who talks calmly with so much sense. No offence Leo but girl talk isn't quiet the same with husbands."

"Point taken, and no offence."

Mattie looks at the Doctor, "Am I good to go then?"

"You are. Let me wipe you down a moment. All done Leo?"

"Yes, all patient data erased."

"Thanks. Mum's the word. Literally."

Mattie swings her legs around and stands up, pulls her top over her belly. "Sorry about the suspicion but why are you being so helpful?"

"A fellow doctor had a young child with leukemia. They'd been tracking the boy's deteriorating health for months. Then suddenly he was clear. As if it had never happened. The endless tests the doctor wanted to perform were not in the patients interest, only his."

"Sounds like someone we knew."

The Doctor frowns.

"Hobb."

"Oh, him. Same bad mould."

Mattie gets on her coat, "Thanks for being one of the good guys. It won't be forgotten. If you need any funding to help with positive research give me a shout."

"Oh, almost forgot, those cakes you mentioned, I'd get a big batch made up and take them with you. The twins are used to the high mineral content, don't stop that."

"Will do, thanks."

As they get in the car she turns to Leo, "Can we go home via Danny's please?"


	24. Chapter 24

Back home Mattie finds Odi visiting Max, he smiles at her bump, "No, she was nuts about little babies. Come on son. Don't want you shorting out on the toaster again." he looks up at her, "One of my fond moments with George before he died."

"Do you miss him?"

"Awfully." he watches her turn to head upstairs, "Good night Mattie."

"Night Odi, sweet dreams."

Mattie is finding it hard to sleep, creeps into the bathroom and sits down. "Right you two. You made it very clear at the hospital that you can hear and understand us. My womb isn't a frigging adventure playground. When I go to bed I'll say Bed Time and you'll chill out until I get up in the morning. I'll say Good Morning Kids when I'm up. Do you understand?" she waits, "Do you understand?"

There's two gentle hand presses.

"Good, Bed Time!"


	25. Chapter 25

Two weeks later Sophie holds the new airbrush and does a test swipe against some cardboard. "Wow! I like this!"

"Sure you want him looking all dusty and bashed up Potato?"

"Film accurate they call it, yes."

"But what about when the little brush robot cleans him up?"

"The one that removes foreign contaminant? His name is M-O. And I don't want Wall-e all shiny and new." she puts Down to Earth on and starts painting.

Joe smiles at his daughter, gives Laura a shrug and goes to the corner of the garage to put the kettle on.

The garage door opens, "We're off again, wish me luck!"

"My badass sister doesn't need luck."

"Not sure about that Teeny, this talk is going online, the old butterflies are back."

~~~

Mattie looks in the glove box, "Blast, forgot them."

Leo glances over, "Forgot what?"

"My sunglasses."

"We can get you a spare pair at the airport, no problem."

Mattie's phone rings, the caller ID says 'Phil'. "Hi, I thought you were taking a short holiday?"

"Hi Mattie, I am, but this was too big to leave on hold. A magazine deal, worth a ton of money. They want you on the cover, to be able to use a lot of old pictures, some new that they'll take and .."

"Who?"

"I'll get to that in a moment. I'm sending you a few links, here's the first, let me know when you've read it." the phone chimes.

"Ok, hold on." her phone opens a blog post titled No More Page3. "The Suns magazine? No thanks."

"Just read it, this is all background stuff."

"I know all about that one, the whole family signed the campaign, even Dan and Toby."

"And it worked, the paper dropped topless models on page three. Here's the next one."

There's another chime, another news blog post opened. Mattie puts the phone on the DC3's handsfree, "I didn't realise they'd done that, I wonder if Sophie has seen it? She doesn't play with dolls much now, but still might find it interesting."

Leo glances away from the traffic for a moment, "Dolls?"

"They've made Barbie in three different body shapes and lots of different nationalities. Much more realistic."

Bingbing rests a hand on Mattie's seat back, "Can you send me the link? Sophie introduced me to playing, I'd never done it before."

"Sure."

A moment later and Bingbing is showing the pictures of the new dolls to the other passengers, Scarlett and Danny.

"Ok Phil, what's the third one?"

"Keep an open mind and read the article before you say anything."

"Not sure I like the sound of that."

"Here it comes."

The phone chimes for the third time, the page loads. "PLAYBOY? Where's this leading?"

"Just read the post Mattie would you?"

"Okay, give me a minute."

She reads how after many many years of naked models Playboy were dropping nudes. The first issue with not a nipple in sight featured a young girl that had risen to fame on social media. Her nickname was apparently Krotchy. "Why'd they drop nudes? I thought that was what they were all about?"

Danny leans forward, "Tastefully shot nudes is what the US had been about, I'll admit to owning more than a few copies in the past. And a VHS tape on the studio process they used. Max would like it, from a lighting point of view, they really put a lot of work into their shoots, no photoshopping needed. The rumour is that the UK division doing Playboy TV went a bit too far, too trashy, Hugh went mad about it and started a shakeup before the brand was totally trashed. So now it's more pin-up, a bit of tease. Women didn't accept that it was actually a good read with well written articles but it was. Hugh wants to get back to that."

"Ok Phil, that's the three links, attitudes are apparently changing, so who wants me on the cover?"

"Playboy."

"WHAT!"

Danny is laughing, "Did you take in anything that you read in the last sixty seconds?"

"But I'm no model."

"You're a celebrity, becoming quite a powerful lady Mattie."

"Phil! That may be true, but.."

"But what? You've been painted in more revealing outfits on the side of aircraft, worn that red dress with collar and cuffs. You own a set of diamond Playboy Bunny cufflinks do you not?"

"But.."

"You're the new type of woman they want to have on the cover Doctor Matilda Ester-Hawkins. They're saying they'll give you full editorial control. You get to proof everything. Front cover, advertising on the back and everything in between. No editor taking your words out of context in error. You get to pick all the other articles and models. Which leads nicely onto the next bit."

"Next bit?"

"They want Sister Synth in the same issue."

Bingbing and Scarlett look at each other, head bump then kiss, chorus, "YES PLEASE! Please Mattie!"

Mattie bursts out laughing, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but okay, I'll do it. Total editorial control you say?"

"Total, their editor will act as an assistant. I've asked around, this is unprecedented, no magazine has given over control quite as much as this. It's a massive gamble on their part, and they're willing to pay an absolute fortune for it. More zeros on the end of a five than I'm going to say over an open call. They want to show that they can really move with the times."

"So when would they want to do it? I'm not due for a couple of months yet."

"When you've finished the talk."

"Looking like this? Surely not."

"Doctor Mattie, Nobel Prize Winner, Mother to be? It's EXACTLY what they want."

"Oh. I'd rather have done it once they're born."

"They want those photos for a follow up article a few months later."

"You're kidding me?"

"No, they think the modern man is becoming far more settled and family orientated. Sure they like the high life, nice cars, their women in beautiful clothes, but at the heart of it these men want family."

"Really?"

"So my researchers are saying."

"Researchers?"

"How else do you think I protect the Mattie E-H brand?"

"Oh. Do I know any of them?"

"Yes. One should be advising you on wardrobe from today on. She's always well turned out these days."

"Mia??"

"Well guessed. Before you see anyone go shopping, she's ready to take a video call whenever you're ready. And don't worry about price tags, the fees will more than cover it."

"But.."

"I know you feel guilty spending so much on clothes, I suggest you match every purchase with a charity donation to the same amount. And mention it in your writeup. Mention all the brands and charities, the advertising will keep them and the magazine happy."

"Okay, I could live with that. Cool. Is everyone lined up for the talk?"

"Yes, they'll all be ready, we've had confirmation that the cargo is on route."

"Thanks Phil, tell them yes then go enjoy the rest of your break!"

"Ma'am yes ma'am!"

"Oh God, don't you start!"


	26. Chapter 26

The following evening Sophie is cautiously touching the paintwork to see it's all dry. Laura puts her head through the doorway, "Soph, is your last extra swimming lesson still on?"

"Practice for the Nationals, yes, why?"

"You don't exactly look ready to leave the house."

"What time is it?"

"Half six."

"Oops, I'm coming right now!" she gets to the doorway, "Mum, hold really still and close your eyes."

"Why Potato?"

"MUM!"

"Okay, okay.."

Sophie rushes back to the bench and drinks the little bit of water left in her glass. She finds a scrap of polycard and runs back. "Keep VERY still and don't open your eyes until I say so, okay?"

"Why?"

"Mum!"

"Okay, what ever you're doing do it quickly you're freaking me out!"

"How do you know it's not a nice surprise?"

"The tone of your voice."

Sophie puts the glass up onto her mothers shoulder, having to reach high on tiptoe, she then wiggles it and slides the card underneath. "Got it."

"Got what? OH MY GOOD GOD!" she backs into the door frame.

"It's not small is it. Very hairy."

Laura shudders, "How can you even hold it in a glass like that?"

"It's just a Giant House Spider mum. It won't hurt you."

"Please, just get rid of it!"

"Ok, I'll drop it over the back fence, if you can lift me up?"

"I'm not getting any closer!"

"How else do I get rid of it?"

"Smash it?"

"You want me to kill it? No way! I'll take it out the front and let it climb a tree."

"Okay, then we need to dash."

"Can we tell Toby Wall-e's ready for the 3D printed tank tracks?"

"When he's back from band practice tonight. It will be late, have a nap after swimming."


	27. Chapter 27

Mattie steps on the plane and goes to turn right.

"Mrs Elster-Hawkins?"

"Yes?"

"Your seat is to the front, 1st class."

"I didn't book first class?"

"Your seats have been upgraded."

She turns to Leo, "Did you?"

"No, premium economy with extra leg room as you asked."

"So who did?"

"I'm sorry Mrs Elster-Hawkins it doesn't show me that information."

"Can you find out?"

"If it's important for you to know, certainly. I'll show you all to your seats and make enquiries."

"Thanks."

"Can I get you a drink?"

"Orange ju.. Ouch! Guys? Really? You want Mummy to have a glass of Champagne?"

There's a new feeling, Mattie realises it's a gentle hand press and drag.

"Sure?" the sensation happens again, "Okay Champagne please."

The stewardess gives her an odd look.

"Don't mind me, I pretend to have conversations with them, it helps pass the time." she does her best to ignore the little kick that follows.

The stewardess gets them all drinks, hands over to a colleague and leaves to get the information.

"I've downloaded the app you mentioned Leo, I think it will help lower the .. rapid movements."

"I've got the alphabet and most common words memorised."

She sits down and checks out the start of the British Sign Language app, practices some of the words. Her most used words are typed into a notepad doc so she can focus on what she'd really use.

She burst out laughing, getting attention from other passengers. "Sorry!"

She waves for him to come over, talks quietly, "Leo, you won't believe this. I say frig a lot right?"

"Yes?"

"In BSL you'd say lazy or idle. And guess how lazy is signed?"

"I've not learnt that one yet."

Mattie puts her middle finger up on both hands, brings her hands up and down twice. "Frig that's awesome. I won't forget that one."

"Like Sophie learning Ich habe Kopfschmerzen in her German class when she had a headache."

"Exactly!"

Mattie is just about comfortable in her seat when the woman crouches down beside her, "I've found out the information you wanted. Mr Hefner's assistant."

"Really?"

"The notes on our system say he wants you to arrive as rested and relaxed as possible."

Scarlett smiles at Mattie from across the isle, "That was nice of him. I'm researching some poses for the shoot with Bingbing. They want sexy but without showing various parts of our bodies don't they?"

"Yes." she points, "None of this" and makes some small circle motions, "or these."

"Okay. That should keep a few cores busy for a while, there are lots of images to check through."

"Take your time, we don't want it getting too warm in here."

"Point taken." she places a hand on Bingbings thy and gives it a squeeze, "We need Sister Synth outfits. Can you message Mia and see where we could get suitable parts from?"

Bingbing places a hand over Scarlett's, "On it Like a Leopard on it's Lunch!"

After takeoff Leo pulls out his inflight entertainment screen, pages through the selection of movies, "They've got the latest Marvel releases and some good romcoms. What are you going to watch?"

"I think I'll go through a few more of these signs then work on my notes for the talk. While I've still got a few things fresh in my mind."

He turns to ask Danny what he's going to watch and finds him wearing the eye covers and noise cancelling headphones.

Mattie gets out the belt like device Danny and his mother had made for her, puts it on and hides it under her blanket. She plugs her own headphones into it's socket and puts them on. He'd been sworn to secrecy, had got his mother making the foam and material surround without knowing the full details of the electronics. Her iPod Mini is connected and the Album 'Mummy Bunny' selected. Track one plays, a recording of her own voice with minutes of silence after the words. "Hi Kids, our best friend Danny made this for you. If you carefully move your hands in Mummy's tummy you'll find two locations that skip the track back and.. Hi Kids, our best friend Danny made this for you.. Hi, Kids, our .. " the rest of her special album is skipped past. A Nero track starts playing, Mattie waits for the tiny hand touch and doesn't get it. She smiles, "Chips off both blocks eh?"

A few hours later Mattie smiles at the presentation, it was ready. The images would trigger memories and get her words flowing. She folds the protective cover over and thinks of Silas and Sandra. She wondered how they were, she'd not seen them in a while. She looks over at Leo, he was lost in another film, smiling away to himself, his face lit by the glow of the screen. She looks down at her bump and whispers "Daddy's happy", closes her eyes and gets some sleep.


	28. Chapter 28

"Mrs Elster-Hawkin's we'll be landing in half an hour."

"Hmm?"

"Can you hear me madam?"

"Sorry, I can now, did you need something from me?"

"We're landing in half an hour."

Mattie wishes the large block of cakes hadn't all gone into a luggage case now sat in the hold. "Sorry. I missed the meal. Do you have anything snack wise, I'm starving."

"Would club sandwiches and a bag of chips be okay?"

"Yes, thanks. And some water please."

The stewardess goes on to wake Leo and Daniel. Scarlett and Bingbing pull their charge cables and tuck them away in their bags.

Mattie accepts the tray of food and tucks in.

As everyone gets ready to land Scarlett turns to Mattie, "The on-flight WiFi was good. Reasonable bandwidth considering the satellite link they have to use. Mia has helped Bingbing find a suitable set of stores to get the Sister Synth outfits from. Can we all go shopping together?"

"Is one of them a.." she mouths the next words 'sex shop', hopes Scarlett can lip read well.

"Yes."

"Sorry, not going there, neither is Leo, the last thing we want is to be photographed going in or out of one of those shops!"

"It's only for the skin tight clothes."

"That doesn't worry me, it's all the other stuff they do."

An elderly gentleman turns in his seat to see who's talking, raises his eyebrows and returns to his paper.

The stewardess passes them all, goes to him, "Mr Hefner, I saw you turn, is everything to your satisfaction, can I get you anything?"

"It is thank you. I'm fine."

As she's about to pass Mattie puts a hand up, "Sorry, did you say Mr Hefner, as in Hugh Hefner?"

"I did, do you know each other?"

"Not yet, I suspect I will extremely soon."

Hugh turns in his seat and gives Mattie a smile, salute and wink.

She wiggles to try and get more upright, brings the chair back up the last few degrees for landing, "Hay Leo, did you prebook a transfer to the hotel?"

"Yes, a large merc."

"Okay."

"Why d'you ask?"

"Just checking."


	29. Chapter 29

"Put your wings on me, wings on me." Leo pulls the top and kisses the back of Mattie's shoulder, "Do you know they're beginning to fade?"

"Yes, I'll have no wings soon. They were fun for a bit. Where's that line from? It reminds me of Peter's Lay your hands on me, that track with the drums I like."

He wraps his arms around her, places his hands on her bump. "No more miracles, loaves and fishes, been so busy with the washing of the dishes?"

"Love that line so much!"

Leo taps out the ding, ding-aling-aling-aling, ding, ding, ding on his watch face.

"So what's wings from?"

"Funnily enough the name has a religious element too, Hymn for the weekend."

"Going to church?"

"Me? No, it's a Coldplay song."

"Oh."

"I like it because it reminds me of you." he starts singing, "Oh, angels sent from up above, you know you make my world light up. When I was down, when I was hurt. You came to lift me up... Life is a drink, and love's a drug. Oh now I think I must be miles up. When I was hurt, withered, dried up. You came to rain a flood."

"The twins are moving! I think they like your singing." she turns around and gives him a slow kiss. "I do love you Mr Elster-Hawkins. I better go help backstage, go find your seat, they'll want us to start soon."

"Once your current wings have faded how about a tiny pair just here?" he runs his hand across her back.

"I'll think about it. Come on, people will be waiting."

As she watches him go she absentmindedly plays with the ring on her right hand, realises what she's doing and looks. She'd put a shark up front and centre. Just as her shark boy would be in a few minutes. Either the universe kept giving her weird coincidences or she was looking for and finding patterns others didn't see.

Backstage Jimmy, Danny, Scarlett and Bingbing are getting the shipping crates opened and checking the equipment.

Jimmy looks at the two large bags that had been put to one side. "Did you get all the costume bits you needed?"

"Yes thanks, and more. We'll change in a few minutes."

Bingbing shakes her head, "I've worked in the sex trade, not by choice and in my former body. The things we observed in that shop were a shock to me and I consider myself open minded."

Scarlett looks up from the equipment, "Do you want to be on the cover Mattie?"

"Not particularly, but it's part of the deal. I'm more interested in getting the text right, getting my messages out there."

"You've got total control haven't you?"

"Yes. Why?"

"How about a double cover?"

"A what?"

"Instead of advertising on the back you put us both on it. The spine would be on the left still, the reader would get half way to the centrefold then turn the magazine over and start from the front again."

"You want to be on the cover?"

"Yes. And we've got our pose worked out."

"Have you? What's it like?"

"We'll show you. Come on Bing, let's get changed."

Ten minutes later Jimmy and Dan are exchanging glances.

"I think the men approve, what do you think Mattie?"

"That zip is rather low."

"We've used tape, it will be fine. Although I've not taped one side yet so we can show you the image idea. Ready Bing?"

Danny frowns, "Sorry, tape?"

"Did you watch the EE BAFTA awards?"

"Yes."

"Think of Toby's favourite Laura Whitmore in the light blue dress. The tape keeps it close to our skin no matter how we move."

Danny gives a long drawn out "Okay..", a penny that had been dropped long ago finally landing. "I'm sure Leo and Silas would have worked that out, and Mia, what a ditz!"

"It doesn't have to be tape, one of my dresses has a silicon rubber self tacky lining that sticks to the skin. Much easier to get off." she smiles at the thought of Leo doing the peel, "Sorry, you wanted to show us your pose."

Bingbing stands beside Scarlett to her right, very close, her back slightly towards Mattie. She slides her right hand into Scarlett's top and cups her left breast. Scarlett grabs the side of her top and pulls hard so it comes off her shoulder, her left side, navel upwards exposed.

"Bloody hell!"

"Too much Danny?"

"Still within their rules. Seen the Janet Jackson photo from a good few years ago?"

"Yes, that's partly where I got the idea from."

"That design hiding your scar is fantastic!"

"Is that why you cursed?"

"Partially. Okay, that's a lie, I could see the design earlier. You're fit."

"Danny!"

"Well she is Matts."

"You do recall she's based on me?"

"Yeah, based, but you spent all your time in those jumpers and plaid shirts. Boring tshirts, except the EDM one. Okay, the odd dress here and there but mainly the jumpers and shirts."

"What about my pink crop top sweat shirt?"

"What pink top? Never seen it."

"You must have."

"I think I would have remembered as it would have stood out from what you normally wore. And Scarlett isn't you. Based on you maybe. With red hair. I can tell the two of you apart, Sister and Sister Synth."

Mattie squints and puckers her lips, looks at him with suspicion. "You can say she's fit yet still think of me as a sister?"

"Yes. Why would you think otherwise?"

"I know your past."

"And your point is?"

Jimmy looks at the bags, clearly still carrying a number of other things. "So what else did you get?"

Scarlett lets the top get back into place and walks up real close, stands between Jimmy and Danny, lowers her voice, "You'll just have to imagine, both of you. If I find either bag has been touched you're in a heap of trouble. Don't forget Bing and I have a photographic memory." she steps back, "Which brings up an interesting thought. We can't forget anything. Or so our programming says." she steps back towards Bingbing, "If Mia, Tim and Si could connect me directly to their Internet peering point I could process the planets Twitter and Instagram feeds realtime. While on the flight I had to settle for only a fraction of it. What would happen if our memory fills, no space left to do anything? Would we just freeze? Or would we develop a way to delete things we no longer wanted? If one of those copies in India hasn't been shot I'd like to find out." she gets behind Bingbing, "I noticed a meme, "I know I'm a handful, that's why you've got two hands." she head bumps. It was Bingbing's turn to pose.

Danny smiles, "If they want to do an interview with me I'll ask Emily if she'd like to recreate that!"

Mattie chuckles, "And there were you in our car asking if I'd taken anything in, what were you doing in the back of the limo while we were all talking with Hugh? Did you miss the entire conversation?"

"You what?"

"The shoot they want with Mia, Nis, Ems and Hola? The ball gowns and elegant dresses? You in a smart tux?"

"Oh. Really? No Sister Synth?"

"One team shot with the five of you. All clean."

"Nuts! I'll ask Paul to shoot it then. Or Max. Yeah, Max, after I've let him watch that old video. Assuming I can find a VHS player that still works that doesn't eat tapes."


	30. Chapter 30

"On the subject of the text. I've been thinking about my name. I can't go by the same name as the actress I was based on, Bingbing Fan. How about Bingbing Nis? I am a fork of Niska."

Mattie shrugs, "If that's what you'd like, why not?"

"Bing for short."

Scarlett catches Danny looking at the bags again, cranks up the WiFi power and head-bump talks. "Do you think they'll resist?"

"I hope not."

"It was nice of Toby to lend you his camera trap. How could you have known to ask for it?"

"I'd wanted to get to know if Jimmy truly thinks of you as a sister or more as girlfriend. Anything other than sister could really get in the way of our relationship. But I'd say sister already. The way he reacted to us posing, it was nothing like Danny. Danny looked like he was going to blow a gasket. Jimmy just had a look of pride."

"Pride?"

"Yes, that his sister was a strong independent individual."

Scarlett drops back into vocalising. "You got that how?"

"When I was in my other body Peggy gave all of us more tips on reading body language. I thought I was already experienced but she is the master! And Danny was telling the truth Mattie, as I suspect you know."

Mattie rubs both hands gently around her belly, "Talking of names, the kids don't want to be called Signal or Satisfy."

The four of them turn to see her. Jimmy speaks what is probably on most of their minds, "How could you possibly know that?"

"Just a feeling. Mother's intuition I guess."

Danny gives Mattie a knowing look.

Bingbing talks over bump, "She's not exactly deviating from the truth, but she's definitely holding something back."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. We don't get pregnant, I have no data to go on, no experience."

"If you could, would you?"

"Be a mother? Of course!"


	31. Chapter 31

Mattie had been looking at the two, realised from their faces that there had been a conversation going on she couldn't hear. She'd got her phone out and searched, waited for the sisters attention to return to the room, "With you standing so close together the difference in your heights was more apparent. According to Bingbing Fan's listing you should be 1.68 meters tall, five and a half foot. She's age 34. How come you're shorter?"

Niska's face grows angry, "Have my designers made me look deliberately younger?"

"I think so."

"By how much?" she looks around the group.

Mattie rubs her belly, the babies moving quite a bit, picking up on the stress in Bingbing's voice, "The actress doesn't look almost mid thirties in many of her latest photos, I would have guessed twenty something."

"Early twenties maybe?" offers Dan.

Jimmy walks around them both, "I'd say early twenties but you could make yourself look even younger in the right clothes." he reads her facial response, "clearly not what you want to do."

"How can I make myself look older? Could Fred do something?"

"I'm sure he or Gesha could, he'd have to fly out here or you'd need to fly back to the UK."

"And risk bumping into Niska? No thanks!"

"Hold on, he's likely to be flying out soon, can't say what for, a secret project."

"How soon?"

"Not sure, sorry."

"I don't want to be sending the wrong message via the photos."

"You're thinking about the older man who had the accident?"

"Yes. I don't want to be encouraging any men like that."

"Hopefully their not the sort to buy the magazine."

Scarlett rests a hand on her shoulder, "Don't panic, we can fix that, here too, you'll just need your zip a bit higher."

Jimmy frowns, "How?"

"Change of hair style for a start, something with more volume, then a wrap to give you somewhat less of an hourglass shape. And different makeup. I think that would do for a start. And Mattie could have the text talk about your age in equivalent human not synth years. If we say you're twenty seven I think people would accept that."

"Based on what?"

"A review of just over two million Instagram photos. It does assume most users have correct age data."

"Thanks Scarlett, I'm more comfortable doing the shoot now."

"Good, because I'm not doing it on my own!"

Bingbing turns to see Danny, "Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"Twenty seven. It brings back memories."

"How so?"

"One of the old guys at Dad's work, he's left since, but whenever asked to guess a lady's age he always picked that. On the grounds that younger women wanted to be thought of as older and more mature, and older women as younger. Or you could go with twenty five, like in In Time."

"In in time?"

Scarlett smiles, "One of Dan and Toby's top 100 favourite films. In it humans have been genetically modified to only last twenty five years. Unless they can pay to fix their countdown, stop it getting to zero."

"That doesn't sound very nice. I know we may not live long but a clock with a time we'll stop at sounds horrible. Twenty seven will do fine thank you!"

Jimmy puts two and two together. "I read lots of articles on synthetics and safety before putting on Exo' for the first time. One was about a middle aged man killed in an accident in a London brothel. Was that you?"

"In my other body, yes. He wanted me to pretend I was much much younger."

"So you snapped his neck?"

"I had him in a choke hold. I got angry and gripped a little too hard."

"Don't worry, I'm not judging you, I'm pretty sure I'd have done the same."


	32. Chapter 32

They hear the large heavy steel door to the loading dock slide open.

"End of subject!"

They watch a man in trench coat and glasses walk towards them, pull out an ID card and quickly flash it. "Technology unit. We've had a report that you're operating unlicensed synthetics."

"You've got to be kidding me! Do you have any idea who we are?"

"You, yes. The others no idea."

"So who am I?"

"Doctor Elster-Hawkins."

"And what do you know about me?"

"Nobel Peace Prize winner for various AI and mind related things."

"And you're aware of my family?"

"Yes, but I'm not seeing any of them here." he gets out and turns on his hand scanner.

Mattie steps in front, "What are you doing?"

"Checking their serial numbers?"

"I don't think so!"

"I need to see if their licensed."

"Are you?"

He gets his ID card out again.

Jimmy snatches it with his synth arm, moving lightning fast. "And how do we verify this is not a fake?"

"You've committed an offence by taking that from me."

"I've done four tours in Helmand Province, I can do a lot more if you'd like?"

"Are you threatening me?"

"No more than you were us." he looks at the ID card, "F.B.I? Why would you be looking at synths? It's a local police matter."

"I have my reasons." he goes to raise his scanner again.

"My sisters are fully sentient, they have no primary owner other than themselves. So a serial number is of no use to you."

"It is, just as your DNA is."

"I'm not on your DNA database, so why should they be on an equivalent for synths?"

"That's where you're wrong. We have your details on file."

"I've never consented to the taking of my DNA and I've never given a swab. So how would you have it?"

"I don't know those details, just that we have it." he tries to step around her to get to Bingbing and Scarlett who have now taken several steps backwards. She moves again, he pulls his coat back and rests his hand on his firearm.

Mattie's phone chimes, the tone for Danny. She glances in his direction and back, frowns and nods very slightly and ever so slowly.

Danny lets a plastic jug of water smash onto the floor. "Sorry!"

In the brief moment the man turns to see she unlocks her phone and holds it down by her side. Her memory hadn't been brilliant the past few months with the twins waking her up so much, hopefully her having words recently would work in her favour. She gently taps where the home icon should be, thinks about how many pages of app icons she had. "Do you really need the threat of a gun?" then remembers it was on the last one. How many didn't matter. All she had to worry about was where on the screen it sat. She swiped her thumb across the screen more than enough times and taps. Think. Think. Think. "Who do you plan to shoot?" STUVWXYZ. She does a count in her head. Yes! Last page again! Frigging Result! She smiles at the agent, scrolls and scrolls, judges the height on the screen and taps. Thankfully his gaze had been landing on the sisters chests, not ventured down to her side. The volume up button gets a good hard press. Her hand starts to shake as she waits for the call to be picked up.

"Hi Mattie, everything okay? I'm guessing something serious is happening for you to call me at this hour?"

She holds the phone up backwards so the agent is shown not her.

"Mr President Sir!"

Mattie talks loudly and forcefully, "I have an agent here wanting to take the serial numbers of my sisters. He's not willing to back off. He's made it clear he's armed. We're due to be on stage for the TED.com talk I told you about any second now."

"Don't move a muscle agent."

"Yes sir!"

"Can I see you Mattie?"

She turns the phone.

"That's your sisters behind you? They look different?"

"Sister Synth US."

"Ah! Understood. Can I speak to the agent again please?"

"Sure, hang on." Mattie spins the phone back, holds it slightly to the side so she can see his face.

"Would you randomly walk up to a stranger and demand identification without suitable cause?"

"No Sir Mr President."

"Then why do you think you have the right to demand such information from them? Are you familiar with the Hawkins legislation?"

"No Sir Mr President."

"Embarrassing for your department. I want your unit head to file a full report on what YOU personally have been doing today. I want to know every last detail. Every coffee and donut stop. Every restroom break, every phone call. I'm quite sure they won't like doing that, will call it a waste of time. It will hopefully make you think more about how you conduct yourself, people's right to privacy. They are people too. Then you're all to read the legislation and write a ten thousand word summary. Yes, I'm sending you back to school. I'll have one of my analysts check the papers to see there has been no conferring and copying. Show me your ID."

The man does as asked.

"Hold it still! Okay. Noted. Now get out of there. I want to hear that all paperwork is filed by the end of the month."

"But.."

"Would you rather a desk job until retirement? Or be replaced with a standard synthetic?"

"No Sir. Thank you sir." he steps backwards, slips on the water and almost falls, gets out in a hurry.

Mattie turns the phone back around, "Thank you! I was just expecting you to send him on his way."

"I've got a growing problem with officers in a small number of states thinking they have more power than they do. The trigger happiness has to stop. Yes we want to combat terrorism, but not in ways that ruin our great land in the process. I'll not have any Judge Dredds on my watch!" he leans closer to his phone, talks in a hushed voice, "Another British comic I used to read." he sits back in his chair, "By the way, I contacted your friend Holly-Anne, she wasn't expecting my call, she was with a friend Emily? I've never heard so many repetitions of 'Oh my God!' in ten seconds before. Quite an amusing couple of ladies. Glad I could help, did the press office send the photo you asked for?"

"They did, many thanks!"

"Good." his face turns away from the camera, "One moment please Mattie."

Danny and Jimmy quietly tiptoe around to stand in front of the ladies.

"Sorry, I'll have to speak to you later, some of my guests have arrived. Message me when the talk is over."

With that the call ends.

"Frigging awesome!"

Danny steps up close and pats Mattie on the shoulder, "I can just picture Ems doing an OMG squeal. Priceless!"


	33. Chapter 33

The door to the corridor that leads to the stage opens and one of the production team pops his head through, "Ah, good." he walks over and looks nervously at his clipboard, "Um, the team were wondering if you'd mind us changing the run order? We'd like you to go on last. Which would mean another forty five minutes."

Danny frowns, "I thought the talks were half an hour?"

"Five min overrun, ten minutes break, half hour talk."

"I see. I'm good, Mattie, you're the one doing the talk, how are you holding up?"

"I'll be okay if I can get my hands on some of my cake bars and a bottle of water."

"Thanks, really appreciate it, I'll send someone along with water."

Mattie types a message into her phone, 'Talk delayed 45, can chat for a bit' and selects a few recipients.

Danny looks at Scarlett's belly, "Synths don't sweat, so why does your belly look like you do?"

She looks down, "That will be the UV protection grease. It stops the ink from breaking down."

"Is it hard to get off?"

"No, wipes off quite easily, why do you ask?"

"If you covered your face and exposed areas in it you'd look like you'd done a workout, especially if you got a misting water spray and left droplets on your skin."

"Thanks, we could try that couldn't we Bing?"

"I don't see why not. It would look better on you with your permanent tan. I'm a bit too fair skinned."

The door opens again, a young assistant steps through with five bottles of water.

Mattie drinks a whole bottle without taking a breath and gives the assistant a thumbs up. Just as she's about to disappear through the door Mattie calls out "That was great, needed that! Thanks!"


	34. Chapter 34

Danny's staring at his phone, "These damned Twitter bots! I swear I get more likes and follows from crap code than real minds. I wonder how many accounts are owned by legit users, humans or sentient synths not blasted automated accounts that just like a post because you've used a word, phrase or mention of someone else."

Jimmy looks at the screen, "How do you know the account is a bot?"

"I've had two likes in a short period from two different profiles. They're both using similar handles. Both have no bio text, a very small number of photo posts, different pictures of the same girl." Danny clicks and scrolls, shows Jimmy both.

"So they are. That's quite a curvy young lady, who's she?"

"No idea!"

"Image search her."

"Do what? I'm on a phone not desktop."

Mattie had been listening, knew how well it worked. "Reverse Image Search app right Jimmy? Jenny told me."

"That's right."

A few taps and pauses later Dan's eyebrows raise a bit. "Demi Rose. Whoever she is. The black on tan with her black hair looks rather hot. Six years ago she'd have been added to the bedroom wall poster collection for sure."

Mattie grins, "As long as that?"

Danny does a duck-face, "Maybe five."

"Five?

"Ok! Up until the week I met Emily."

"Sure?"

"Reasonably."

Mattie had been searching, "Black hair, big boobs Demi Rose?"

"What does she look like?"

Mattie turns her phone for a second.

"Yes, that's her."

"Demi Rose Mawby. Model. Height: 5 ft 2, Bust: 32DD, christ, hope her back's good with that, Waist: 24, Hips: 33, Hair: Black, Eyes: Hazel, Dress: 8, Shoe: 4. Welcome everyone bla bla bla. My name is Demi Rose and I am a BRITISH Internationally published Lingerie model. Since I was a little girl bla bla bla, my dream is reality." she sniggers, "British, who'd have guessed, should I warn Emily? Looks like Danny's in love."

He lowers his phone. "No I'm not!"

"Sure? Your face said otherwise."

"I'm only early twenties, who knows how long Ems will put up with me. Just looking."

"Not long if she catches you drooling over pictures like that!"

He brings the phone back up , "She's got a very symmetrical face, could she be a synth do you think? 32DD, 24, 33? I've seen a lot of synths, none in that sort of configuration."

Mattie does a room echoing laugh, "Oh Danny stop fibbing, you're head over heals in lust. Why else would you recall her stats so well?"

"Mattie."

"Yes?"

"Shush!"

Mattie gives him the look, "Just admit it, she floats your boat. You're attracted to her."

"Maybe."

"There's nothing wrong with that. If we were only attracted to a single person the human race would be over pretty soon." she grabs one of her cakes and starts picking. "Can you imagine it? Are you my one in seven and a half billion? No, move along, move along."

Danny smiles, "One in 7.5 Giga-people. That would be some pretty terrible odds for finding Mr or Mrs Right."

"Or Mr or Mrs Right Now."

"Right now I'm wishing Ems had flown out with us."


	35. Chapter 35

They chat for a few more minutes about the app, things Jimmy had used it for.

Danny starts frowning at Scarlett and Bingbing.

Mattie had noticed, "Are you okay Dan?"

"Sort of. Something's going on."

"What do you mean?"

"Those bags, they won't stop looking at them then Jimmy and I. It's as if they actually want us to look."

"Ladies?"

"Yes Mattie."

"Are you up to something?"

The two look at each other, "Sorry, Yes."

Mattie does a really good impression of her younger sister. "Don't make matters worse, I'm still simmering a bit after that F.B.I agent."

Scarlett smiles, "Sorry Jimmy, it's got a camera trap and lots of underwear."

Danny laughs, "Is that it?"

"And a bit of cardboard and old paper to make the bags look more full."

Mattie frowns, "Why?"

"We thought that if Jimmy truly thought of Scarlett as a sister he'd not touch. If he thought of her more as a second partner he'd go sneaking a look. Then we decided sister rather than partner."

They get a head shake from Mattie, "So why all the glances?"

They look at each other, Scarlett talks first, "After the talk of that model we wanted their opinion but didn't know how to ask. We've got some in black too."

"And red, pink and turquoise."

Mattie bursts out laughing, "Are you for real? Why do you want their opinion? If you feel great in it that's all that matters."

"But we.."

"No buts, or butts, except the perfectly sculpted ones. I don't have a mass of experience, had a few girls at school and uni to talk to that had boyfriends way before me. I did learn something from them. It's a confidence thing. If you feel great in it you'll put off good vibes. THAT'S what others find sexy."

"Is it that simple?"

"Yes."

"Ok. Thanks."

Danny looks disappointed, "For a moment I thought I might get some ideas on what Ems might like. Oh well."


	36. Chapter 36

Mattie sits down on one of the few chairs, opens another bar.

"How many of those do you eat a day?"

She looks up at Jimmy, "I stopped counting as it was getting scary. Lots."

"Nice are they?"

"Delicious. And very healthy."

"You're eating for three, I guess that makes sense."

They sit in silence for a few minutes. Mattie has some more water and burps, "Sorry! Excuse me!" she looks at the four, "If any of you could change anything in your past would you?"

Jimmy leans against one of the shipping crates, "Yes, I'd not have driven over that bloody IED."

Danny walks over and leans against it too, "If not that one you may have hit another, one that might have killed you outright. Or been killed by a bullet or shell."

"You're a bag of joy aren't you!"

"My point is if you had the opportunity to change anything in your past, no matter how small it may ripple out into a bigger change you'd not like."

"Such as?"

"Like I said, being dead for other reasons, not getting back with your wife, not meeting Mattie. Not getting Scarlett as a sister."

"That's deep, you surprise me."

"It's a theme in one of the Star Trek Next Generation episodes that Emily and I love. It really was eye opening. Tapestry. Yeah, that was it. Pull a loose thread in your past and watch your life unravel."

Mattie looks at another bar and puts it down, "Accept who you are and how you got to where you are today."

"Yes. Don't dwell on the past, keep moving forward. The good, the bad, it all helped get you where you are now."

"We know Danny wouldn't want to change anything, how about Sister Synth?"

Bingbing shakes her head, "I was going to say yes when you first asked the question. Now I've heard everything Danny's said I've changed to no. I'm liking exactly where I am right this second and who I'm with, wouldn't want to risk that changing."

"How about you Scarlett?"

"Likewise."

Mattie smiles, "Another nice one for the collection."

"Yes."

Danny frowns, "Collection?"

"Words that begin with L, like Love."

"Oh. Like luscious lips lingering lovingly longly."

They all laugh loudly.

"LOL! Becoming a bit of a wordsmith are you Danny?"

"Toby's fault. That Voice Dream Writer app he uses incessantly got me thinking more about words too."

"Incessantly? Can't recall you using that one before?"

"Nice isn't it?"

"Yeah, bit different."

"Laudable language love."

"Ok Dan, we got the message."

"Lawyer Laura lay labouring lamentable liberty laws."

"DANNY!"


	37. Chapter 37

The door opens again, a man in suit and tie enters the room, dark glasses and ear piece on.

Danny turns to see him, "Oh great, now it's the bloody M.I.B."

"Oh for frigs sake now what?"

"Doctor Elster-Hawkins.."

"Yes, what are we going to be accused of now?"

"Accused?"

"Unlicensed synths or some other B.S. You don't look F.B.I, what are you C.I.A?"

The man smiles, "No."

"Then what?"

"A messenger."

"From where?"

The man smiles and reaches into his jacket, sees their worried looks, "Relax! I bring documents. Is Leo here?"

"He's in the audience."

"Okay, I'll leave them both with you."

"Both what?"

"US passports. Quite unique ones."

"Unique how? We didn't provide passport photos."

"Exactly the point. You'll be the only passport holder to have half a President in the background. And an e-Passport digital signature from him to personally vouch for your identity." he hands the two over. "Leo has half of the President,half his sister. If you hold them in the right way you can see it's two halves of the same photo taken on Airforce One."

Danny steps around to see over Mattie's shoulder, "Nice!" A moment later he closes one of the shipping crates and turns to see her again, "We've talked lots about photos, for the sisters and passports, what's going on the centrefold?"

"I was hoping you'd forget about that for the moment."


	38. Chapter 38

Mattie's phone chimes, their app wanting to start a call.

"Hi Mattie, did the document drop happen?"

"Hi! Your man's here right now, they're great thanks!"

"I thought you might like them. Thanks for getting that done so fast Charles."

"My pleasure Sir."

"More news, I've had confirmation that your Harun friend is safe in the UK with his Matia companion, the copies are being rounded up. The mission has been changed, as many L series cores are to be saved as possible. There's only one person on the planet I trust them with now. And that's you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. We'll need a DNA sample, eye scan, voice print, hand scan and password."

"That F.B.I agent said my DNA is already on file."

"He did? I'd be interested to know how."

"Me too. Why do you need all that?"

"For the bunker vault."

"Bunker?"

"Are you familiar with Area 51?"

"No way! The UFO place?"

"LOL, you do talk like my daughter at times, Yes way!"

Danny rolls his eyes.

"It's a test facility for new aircraft, nothing more. Is that your friend Daniel to your right Mattie?"

She looks over her shoulder, "Yes, that's Dan."

"I look forward to meeting you one day young man. Corporal Colins, good to see you up and well."

"Thank you sir!"

"Area 51 is where we'll be storing them. Our team EMP bombed and cleared out the plant in India, everyone there is in custody, they won't be making any more, the design lost. You'll be sole keeper and guardian of The L. I'd love to stay and chat but I have to go, I've a room full of delegates waiting to talk about saving the planet. Talk soon." The call ends.

"I can't believe the President of the United States gave you a LOL."

"He is human and a father too, give him some credit."

A stage hand steps through a door, "We're ready for you Doctor."

"Thanks, we'll be right out." she looks at them all, "Everyone ready? As soon as we're done grab everything and head to the studio. Bingbing and Scarlett on the bikes, Danny, Jimmy, Leo and I will follow in the limo. The courier firm are coming early morning to pick up the empty crates and take them to storage."

Jimmy looks at the other bit of equipment, "And that?"

"It's being donated to a children's hospital."

"Anything I can do for you Doctor?"

Mattie looks at the agent, holds out a hand for a shake, "Just keep being one of the good guys. Come watch our talk if you don't need to rush anywhere." she grabs another cake, "Actually there is something you can do for me.."


	39. Chapter 39

Mattie stands on the stage, "Good evening everyone, I'm Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins, but you can all call me Mattie. This is my first TED.com talk, it was to be titled 'Think Big!' but in my current state, I thought it best to change it to Imagination." she waits for the laughter to pass and smiles at Leo sat in the front row. "If you see me pause awkwardly for a moment it's probably because one of the twins is giving me a good kicking. They're my biggest critics already."

The screen changes to the photo of a genius sticking his tongue out. My brother went to a demonstration at a large telecommunications firm in the UK, shared this quote from Albert Einstein he'd seen on a wall. 'Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.' I wholeheartedly agree."

She uses the wireless mouse to change the slide of her presentation, the screen fills with a closeup portrait. "This is Leo. The father of my babies, those of you that have been following my career will know he's half synthetic, brain wise, with some minor leg bionics. The rest of him is all human and working well as you can see from my condition." she puts her hands apart and looks down, "Ow! Oh my, did that show? I think they both kicked at once!" she puts a finger to her ear, listens to the production team, "Wow! On camera? That's fri.. Awesome! Sorry, as I was saying, Leo was saved from death by his father David, one of the three giants behind the technology you all know today as Persona Synthetics. The three men in this photo are left to right, George Millican, Leo's father David Elster and Edwin Hobb. Sadly Edwin turned a little nasty, met a horrible end. David is thought to have faked his own death, still to be found. George died, but I'll be talking more about him in a moment.

Leo had major issues with post traumatic stress disorder until a thought came to roost in my head. My university professor helped me build a team and turn the idea into reality. We helped Leo overcome his PTSD and went on to help many soldiers, the first of which had lost an arm and both legs." the slide changes again, shows Jimmy in just underwear. "I had a sister commissioned to act as an assistant for Corporal Jimmy Colins." the slide changes again. "Jimmy went on to become our Exosynth test pilot. I'd like to introduce them both, Bingbing the other half of Sister Synth US and Daniel, the creator of so much of our technology."

Two of the electric bikes drive slowly onto the stage, Danny riding pillion behind Scarlett, one of the light projectors being held by Jimmy who's seated backwards behind Bingbing. The bikes stop either side of Mattie. "The L plates are an in joke, maybe the Ladies will always be learning. You'll notice neither have put a stabiliser or foot down, the bikes are making quite a loud whine. That's the gyro technology Danny imagined and built into the wheels. They can keep a bike upright through the worst of skids." Jimmy and Dan get off, help position the projector. "Can I have a volunteer from the audience please? You sir, you look like a big strong man, come and try to push one of the bikes over."

He gets to the stage, asks Mattie a question.

"No, sorry, she's spoken for."

Bingbing gives him a smile. He asks another.

"Anywhere, shove it as hard as you can."

Another question follows.

"Bingbing will be fine, just make sure to shove the bike not her."

Done as asked he sends the bike skidding sideways across the stage, it keeps upright, the gyro's screaming loud, getting applause from the audience. The Sister Synths put down the stands, dismount and turn the bikes off.

"We have a short video of the first proper outing of the bike, you may have seen a short clip from it on the news."

With all of the hoots of laughter and applause Bingbing realises that although she'd experienced that ride, the Baymax moment, it wasn't in her current body, no one would ever give her credit for it. She'd have to do something of her own. She looks at Scarlett and smiles. At least someone would enjoy whatever that something turned out to be with her. And she was getting comfortable with being called Bingbing not Niska. She'd set her phone to have a custom chime when Scarlett messaged her, two bing noises. It was only a little thing, but it amused her. One thing that still saddened her was not being able to see Sophie or Odi again. Not currently anyway. Maybe with time she, the other she that still went by the name Niska, would accept her.

Mattie pulls a face as she gets a good hard kick. "Oof. I think that kick was my queue to get on with my talk. No more kicks please kids. Danny had the idea while in Comedy Club in London, drew a sketch on a napkin in TGI Fridays and turned it into reality. The message I want to get across is follow your dreams and ideas, no matter how big they are. Let your imagination run riot. Don't let people put you down and tell you it won't work if your gut tells you it will. Despite losing an arm and both legs on his forth tour Jimmy no longer needs his wheelchair." she motions to him, he does a walk forward and pulls his shirt and trousers off, the sides held together with velcro. "Nice cycle shorts Jimmy! Jim is fully active again and enjoying life thanks to the Exosynth prosthetic."

Jimmy rushes over and gets close to the microphone, "Very much so! Thanks to you and your team Mattie."

She looks out into the audience at Leo, nods at Jimmy, makes a C sign with her right hand and taps it on her belly then chest.

Leo smiles, nods and mouths back 'Confidence.'

The slide start changing more. "And regarding enjoying life, make the most of it, have fun. Over the past few years I've attended Comic Con a number of times, featured in a comic of my own, Atom Elite comics are now three successful ongoing stories, soon hopefully to be four. I became an army pin-up on quite a few aircraft, met a lot of interesting people. As a teenager I'd never have expected this bunch to be in my personal friends list." she pages through a number of slides, Peggy, Leo, Mia, Niska, Fred, Max, Paul, The Visionary, The Army guys in the UK and America, her professor, the team, Nero, Peter, Tobias, Paul and Jasmine, Will and Kate, the President and his Chief of Staff, the rest of the extended family. "They're all human. Some might not be flesh and bone. But the vehicle we use to move around in should not be what defines us. It's our thoughts, emotions and beliefs, how we care for one another. Would anyone disagree with that?" she looks around and doesn't see or hear any difference of opinion. "Good. The important thing is that they didn't let people lower their bar. They stayed true to their goals. My sisters have set new land speed records, are having fun in other ways too." she looks at Sister Synth and winks. "My brother in law and his partner have a mobile hospital taking specialist surgery skills around the UK and some parts of Europe." the slide changes to show many of Fred and Gesha's patients. "If you want to do something really awesome and don't have the funds to start come and see me, I'm launching" a lot of emphasis is put on the L, "a venture capital service with very attractive rates. And I'm not a dragon."

Scarlett and Bingbing smile at each other, another word for their collection. The projector was ready so they nod to Mattie.

"The sisters have our equipment ready, I'd like to play a short video from our youngest member of the family. It will be playing on another invention of Daniel's that he's kindly made open source."

Sophie is sat on the floor, looking down at a camera.

"Hello everyone, I'm Sophie Hawkins, age twelve and eleven months. We've tilted the video so the back is higher up so you can see Wall-e behind you."

Many of the audience turn and see him doing a wave.

Leo notices a man walking along the front of the audience, turns to see if there are any empty seats, there aren't.

"Good evening gentlemen, Mattie would like you to follow me."

He looks towards Mattie who gives him and Ok sign.

"My friend Danny made Ted for Mattie's birthday, then upgraded Mr Patches from a stuffed toy. For Christmas he made me a BB8 and Mum, Dad and I made a body for Wall-e. I've been learning coding, they can all now talk in English, German, French and Spanish. Or beeps. I've learnt beep-whistle too, but we decided to stop using it as when I whistled some of my favourite tunes they all got confused. I'm here to say if any of the audience have children let them be as creative as possible. Like my big sister and I. Dad got me an airbrush, I learnt how to do all the effects on Wall-e to make him screen accurate. I came up with a simple routine for ComicCon and went on to choreograph our flashmob style performance on a cruise ship. It was a LOT of fun." she does an eyes open all-knowing nod that gets a few of the audience laughing, "Our team won gold at the national swimming competition for the pool side dance routine. If you've got a creative streak, most people do, of one sort or another, use it and have FUN! See you soon Mattie and Leo. Say bye gang!"

BB8 does a quick small circle on the floor, pops his welding arm out, lights its blue LED and wiggles it, Wall-e, Ted and Mr Patches wave an arm. All five of them call out in turn, "Bye!", "Auf Wiedersehen", "Au Revoir", "Adios", "Goodbye!"

Bingbing rushes off the stage and joins the men, "Hi, how are you?"

"Great thanks, and you?"

"Very very good thanks." she gives them both a hug. "Great to see you, we'll talk more in a bit. Lot's to share!"

"Do I know you? You feel familiar but I'm sure we've never met."

"In a past life, if you believe in such things?"

Mattie turns from the screen back to her audience, "I think I just got my official reminder to be back in the UK in time for her birthday."

There's the odd chuckle from the audience. Mattie rubs her belly and walks to the other side of the stage.

"Think BIG ideas, not just big products. Leo spent a lot of time gathering research while I was doing my PTSD work in four of your states. He's spent the last six months working with Dr Francis Fitz, his brother Fred, his sister Niska and Fred's partner Gesha. They had hoped to repair the kidney Dr Millican had damaged, fixed the disease that had robbed him of many of his memories. Unfortunately George's body didn't survive the defrost process long, the cellular decay was too rapid, his body had multiple organ failures within twenty four hours of the process starting."

The agent steps forward, "If you could make your way to Mattie now."

Mattie is swinging her arms playfully, "BUT. And it's a big one, I'm pleased to say that the techniques used by David Elster were also stored in his son, my husband, a second hidden program that revealed itself when the right conditions were met. I used the word about earlier rather than with, not wanting to give the game away. I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to my husband Leo. And a new man, fully synthetic, but totally human, Dr George Millican two point zero.


	40. Chapter 40

Mattie wakes but keeps her eyes closed. It must have been a hell of a party, mummy feels like she's got quite a good hangover. A voice inside her head asks 'What party? Would you have been that stupid, get drunk with the twins?' Something feels different, a hand reaches down to rub her bump and it's not there. Mattie opens her eyes to find herself on a recovery bed, of sorts, bump gone. "What the hell?"

Panic sets in and she starts breathing heavily.

There was no memory of coming to the hospital, if that was what this was. It didn't look anything like the rooms seen in documentaries, no wires or tubes, no monitors. She closes her eyes, tries to think through the fog that had enveloped her mind. Why wasn't there a pounding headache with the fog feeling?

"Hello?" there's a long wait for a reply that doesn't come, there's no sound of movement outside. There's no patient call button either. "HELLO!"

The minutes pass. The thin sheet is thrown back and she looks down at the surgical gown, spots of red showing through. Gown pulled up the bandage is examined and carefully peeled back. "Shit!"

This wasn't the tiny carefully done stitching that Fred and Gesha would do. This was a quick and dirty cut and shut. The wound looks horrible. She'd have thrown up if her stomach had anything to shift. She felt it knotting up but no pain. The back of her hand is pinched hard between her fingers. "Shit!"

The crying starts, emotions running high, a very large dose of pain killers had clearly been given. She goes to move off the bed only to find one foot is handcuffed to the end. "Oh for frigs sake!" Shouting for help was possibly the worst thing to do. This wasn't a proper bed, it's padding was too hard and it was one long rectangle, no folding section to make it possible to sit up in bed. Think. All of those hundreds of movies. What would... Escaping the mental hospital, channel Sarah Conner. A hand reaches up and there's another curse. No hair pins. Now what? How on earth had this happened? She closes her eyes and tries to think. Tries to recall recent events, difficult with a head full of fog. What had happened? Jump back and work forward. The TED talk. The group had got a standing ovation from most of the audience. They'd all gone to the shoot, she'd met the editor who would become her assistant and given her login details so she could work on everything from home. Four movies had been enjoyed on the flight back, what the hell were they? Why was her memory patchy? Travelling with Leo and .. and?George, it was George. Only the one glass of .. what was it? Champagne? They'd gone .. Shit! They'd gone to get the car while she stayed with the bags, her swollen feet hurting. Or was it her legs? Then the feeling of being stung. Yes, being stung. Or at least something sharp and painful. That was her last memory before waking up here. "Shit shit shit! Where the frigging hell am I? More importantly where are the twins!"

There's a creak of a distant door, she lies back and pretends to be asleep. Her heart rate jumps as footsteps come close, sound to stop outside and then continue into the distance. In one tiny way she was glad this wasn't a standard hospital. A beeping heart monitor would have given the game away. With eyes closed she tries to think of other films. Nothing. What would Leo do? She recalls his account of being kept in a cage, old wiring on the wall. She looks around, nothing. Just some shoddy flatpack furniture.


	41. Chapter 41

She lies back and listens to the silence. The only thing she can hear is her own heartbeat. No clocks ticking, total silence.

Mattie drifts off to sleep and dreams she's at home, the first night after meeting Leo. She wakes in her single bed, Anita asking if she has anything for a dark wash she was doing. She wakes again, Leo beside her, his legs all pinned to the cages, wakes again, onboard the ship.

Then on the beach on a deck chair, then on the comfortable sofa at the zip wire, then again in a hotel in Vegas. Then on an operating table with a man looking more like a butcher, half a pig carcass hanging from the ceiling. He's holding the largest meat cleaver you could imagine. She screams and he just turns and smiles, brings the cleaver down fast towards her belly. She wakes with a start and finds herself back in the hotel room. Her heart felt like it was going to explode through her chest. It must have been doing well over two hundred beats a minute. "Fuck!"

Leo enters and pulls his hair back hard, his lips opening wide and skin stretching. His mouth is closed, teeth together, the skin is pulled backwards like a hood to reveal a metal skull, his round lidless eyes drilling into her. His mouth starts snapping open and closed, "Hello Yummy Bunny!"

She wakes again, she's at the zip wire, Leo's lost the fingers on one hand having held the wire in front not behind.

Then again, back in their bedroom, Leo's operation had gone wrong, the batteries shorted and exploded. A dead body, blown up from the inside lays smouldering beside her. Leo's head is..

She wakes again, Anita enters the room and pics up the air rifle, holds the barrel to her eye, "Goodbye Matilda", pushes the trigger. With a start and gasp she wakes to find herself back in the bland room with only a bed and knackered piece of furniture. "Frigging hell! What the fuck have they given me?! Inception style nightmares on steroids aren't fun!"

She lies there for ages, staring at the ceiling, fighting hard not to fall asleep again. There should be a pounding headache. The blood rushing around her head, can be heard, but still there's no pain. Her breathing is still heavy. "Calm down Matilda, you don't want a frigging heart attack!"

When she eventually does fall asleep the nightmares return. Not the same but a similar sequence of good and bad. It's stressful and draining, as if she wasn't weak enough already.

Waking from this last episode she sits up, goes to rest sideways against the wall until the bed moves away from it. She sits forward instead, trying not to fall asleep. Mattie manages to outrun the demons for a few hours before sleep takes her again.

Her father merrily smiles at her while cutting his hand in half with the band saw. Sophie drowns doing one of her dolphin swims. Her mother is involved in a fatal car crash when Anita wakes into Mia while at the wheel. Toby races his bike across a busy road and is hit by a juggernaut. Danny electrocutes himself fitting new batteries to one of their bikes.

Something about the pattern shook part of her mind into paying more attention. "STOP!" Mattie shouts at no-one in her dream. "As Will Smith's character says in After Earth, Danger is real, Fear is in our heads! FUCK OFF OUT OF MY HEAD! None of this happened! It's just drugs causing neurones to fire in ways they shouldn't!"

She's suddenly on the tranquil beach where they'd taken the video and photos with Paul and Jasmine. She's on her own but the sea is calm, waves gentle and the breeze cool. She feels her heart rate slowly drop. This was still a dream, of that she was sure. Lucid dreaming wasn't something she'd experienced a lot of, but she now found herself somewhat in control. Dolphins. I want dolphins. And there they were, fifty meters off the beach, racing to the surface and doing loops in the air before splashing back into the sea. She looks down, there's no bump, no scar. Everything is good. Except the twins are missing.

There's a gravel noise that doesn't belong.

"Mattie?"

She turns, "Yes Teeny?" It was a good resemblance of her kid sister, but it had far more hair than Sophie had ever grown. It had never trailed on the ground, a mass of tiny curls.

"WAKE UP!"

She wakes with a shudder, hears the car return, the footsteps and door open. Pretending to be asleep she feels a sudden jab and her consciousness slips away.

Hours later, who knew how many, she wakes, feeling really out of it. Was it morning or night? With no window to the outside she had no idea. "Nice one Mattie, look what playing being asleep got you. Idiot."

She rolls onto her side, rests her head on her arm. A hand is moved to rest on the missing bump. Bugger. Why? If someone had taken the twins why was she still here, wherever here was, why was she being kept sedated? What was the point? And who the frigging hell was doing this?

The voice of Peter Jones fills her head. "The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?" she could recall the noises the guide made. She hadn't been the biggest of Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy fans before that day but that episode had caught Max's imagination. He'd played it over and over, not in his head like the others but on the TV. She'd come to like it too, started watching others.

Now and again when Max had made a negative comment he'd be called Marvin.

"I'm not a paranoid android."

He'd get a "Cheer the frigging hell up!" and grin response. Mattie smiles a little for the first time since waking into this nightmare.

How is easy, just pop it in and chew. Why, I'm feeling weak, would probably feel frigging starving if it wasn't for the drugs. Where? Not in this bloody room! She needed to get out. How? Maybe there'd be something inside that crappy bit of furniture? She turns and peers over the edge of the bed. It was on wheels, didn't looked to be locked, their dirty leavers that looked foot activated pointing upwards. She probably should have realised that earlier when she tried to rest against the wall. Brain fog, you're forgiven. With both arms above her head, arms bent and palms against the wall she pushes hard into the corner. She feels a stitch tare but no pain.

The bed glides across the lino covered floor, coming to rest against the small cupboard at the opposite corner.

She wriggles down the bed and reaches over. It was empty. Her short-term memory may have been messed with but her long-term memory was still good. At the age of 14 she had tried to rearrange her bedroom herself. Trying to move her wardrobe on her own she'd rocked it from side to side a lot, inadvertently loosened all the small nails that held the thin board at the back in place. Without the back it had lost all rigidity and folded, ripping the corner joints apart. Joe had gone ape, "I hope you learn a lesson from this!"

She had.

If you wanted a source of thin easily bent nails in a hurry look no further than the back of some flatpack. The more beaten up and moved about it looked the better.

She grabs the top of it and turns it around, finds two nails with heads just proud of the backing.

"Frigging hell!" she'd felt her fingernail break, thankfully not the pain. Another bit of pain to come once the medication wore off. The second nail comes out more easily. She pulls it two thirds out then pushes it sideways as hard as she can with her thumb to bend it. Wow! It was amazing what you could do with your pain turned off. Did Niska do that when in her ninja role? She pulls it out and hears the door creak again.

With the furniture turned back she looks at the room, how was she going to get the bed back? Frig! "Not exactly a walk in the park eh Mattie?" she whispers to herself, looking around the almost empty room. Walk! That was it! Mattie had spent one summer in the park teaching Soph how to walk on her hands once they'd both mastered handstands. It might have been what seeded Teeny's love of gymnastics. She hooks her free foot under the side rail and gingerly lowers herself towards the floor. The bed wasn't that heavy, she can feel it start to tip just as her fingers reach the ground.

With her hands both working hard she manoeuvres the bed back into it's original position. As she goes to raise her hands she feels it wanting to tip again. This would go one of two ways. With a mighty crash or some more damage to her stitches. She takes a deep breath and pushes hard with all her might, uses her legs and core to get herself back up. There's a pop pop pop sensation as she does so. "Bugger!"

Propped up on an elbow she peels back the bandage to see her wound bleeding badly. "Oh great, I'll starve or bleed to death if I can't get out of here. Come on Matilda, use your frigging head!" She hears the footsteps again, stops the whispering. She thinks hard about the position she'd been in when waking up and gets back to it as best she can. She didn't have weapons or the strength to fight just yet, she'd have to go with the flow. The door opens and someone enters. She hears them walk to the cupboard come bedside cabinet, place something on top before it's dragged across the floor to her bedside. She can feel the persons breath on her face, human not a synth! They leave the room. There's a sound of clicking and Matty can sense the light levels drop. She sighs, is grateful she'd not felt a needle, turns and opens her eyes to see food has been left. There's the sound of a car starting shortly after, tires on gravel. Had she been left alone? One way to find out. But first she'd eat.


	42. Chapter 42

The cheese sandwich looked home made, maybe there was a kitchen. The bread is carefully pealed back, there's no sign of anything dodgy. It's wolfed down in seconds. She wiggles down the bed and starts trying to pick the handcuffs. Another nail breaks. "Two down eight to go." she says to herself sarcastically. Eventually there's a tiny click noise and the thing comes open. She gets to her feet and goes to the door, peers through the glass into what looks like a corridor. The paper plate the sandwich had been on wasn't much of a weapon, so it's left there. In the next room she finds various medical supplies. Reading some of the labels Mattie realises she's in a small veterinary hospital. Walking around reveals a recovery room with cages, two medium sized dogs and three cats are sleeping. Further exploring reveals that the windows don't open enough to make an escape and the doors are locked. Even if one could be opened more, the metal grills that had been fitted over them outside weren't going to let anyone get through in either direction. Grills was the only word that came to mind thanks to the fog. They were sheets of perforated metal, a grid of large circular holes punched across the front. A pub not far from home that had been flooded by a broken pipe was temporarily closed, similar things had been bolted over the windows to stop thieves and squatters from breaking in while it waited for a refit.

She heads back to the supplies room and finds needles and thread. The back of the hand is pinched again, still no pain. With the dressing removed she does a few stitches of her own, finds a fresh dressing and tape. Throwing the fire extinguisher at a window is given some consideration to see if any grills could be shifted when she hears the car again. She quickly puts everything back as it had been and turns to head to her room. Her room? What a joke! The sandwich! Blast, she couldn't pretend to be asleep again, accepting it had forced her hand, she needed to be ready and didn't have a plan. The fire extinguisher is taken, the best weapon in reach. Or was it? Quickly doubling back packs of scalpels are found. Even better.

With her heart pounding she stands by the wall waiting. Blast that glass window. The person would see the bed was empty. She quietly lowers the extinguisher to the floor and gets back on. Will Smith comes to mind again. Why was that? Did her subconscious secretly fancy him? He was rather fit and charming. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts. His saying, what was it. Come on fog, clear!

A moment later the saying surfaces into her consciousness. 'Always BE ready, then you don't have to GET ready.' Under the thin cover she feels one of the scalpels through the packaging, carefully opens it up and removes the protective cap. The door at the end of the corridor is unlocked, footsteps approach.


	43. Chapter 43

The room's door opens and the person steps inside. "Matilda, you've woken, good."

Mattie has her eyes shut, her face emotionless. Inside she was screaming. She knew that voice. It was Hobb. With her right hand she throws back the covers and lashes out with her left. She catches him across the face, drawing blood.

"That wasn't very nice now was it? What would your children think?"

"Fuck you!"

"Such a lady. But then I shouldn't say 'your', or have expected more from such a surrogate?"

Mattie's off the bed and waving the knife, "What do you mean surrogate?"

"Oh come now, you're an intelligent girl, can't you work it out?"

"I'm a woman not a little girl, now tell me!"

"Would you willingly have carried a nine month experiment if you'd known the outcome?"

"Experiment?"

"The twins. Human synth hybrids growing inside you. Most likely with an IQ in three digits before they're even born! Doctorate by twenty one. That took some doing but the Elster family all played their parts so well. That idiot Silas almost cocked things up for us but it all came good in the end."

"But Peggy killed you! I saw it myself!"

"When you're spending someone else's money why make one synth copy when you can make two? And why use blue colouring when red looks so much better."

"You're saying she killed a synth?"

"Another actor playing his part."

"I don't believe you. None of this is real."

"You think you're dreaming? I can assure you you're not. This is as real as it gets."

"But Leo would never have gone along with it."

"Wouldn't he? Hunny Bunny? Do you still have those cufflinks?"

"How could you.."

"You thought I'd just reprogrammed Fred. Getting him to do a few obvious things diverted your attention. They all acted like they were normal, but were in fact performing parts in a very long play."

"No that's.."

"Think it all through. There's no other explanation that makes sense."

"This is all bollocks!"

"Really? All those things Leo did to win your trust for us? The leg operation, running after our lad to recover your car keys? The fun in the tunnel at the aquarium? Hardly bollocks."

"Where are my babies!"

"Gone. And they're not yours. They share no DNA with you. You'll never see them. Or the Elster family for that matter."

"I'M NOT A SURROGATE!"

"And you base that assertion on what? Have you seen their faces? The lack of any resemblance to you or any Hawkins?"

"Why did you cuff me to the bed?"

"For blood samples, we need to see how the process has changed you physically." Hobb wipes blood from his face, "To prevent this. I underestimated you Matilda Hawkins."

"Doctor Mattie Elster-Hawkins!"

"Really? How closely did you look at your marriage certificate? You'll find it not worth the paper it was faked on, but you had a good party. The rose petals were a nice touch. Quite noisy in bed when you want to be aren't you?"

Mattie lunges at him, "YOU BASTARD!"

Although she manages to stab him the blade isn't long enough to do much damage. He grabs her wrist and pries the knife from her hand. "Enough of that thank you!" He stabs the wall with it snapping the blade head off.

Adrenaline was surging through every vein, carried by blood rushing at dangerously high pressure. Hardly bollocks? Bollocks HARD! Mattie knees him in the groin and he folds. Toby describing some wrestling moves to their father come to mind, she recalls a comment from Jimmy and she smashes both fists down hard on the back of his neck with all the power she can muster. There's a reassuring sound of something breaking. She then realised the sound was her own left wrist. "Fuck!" Hobb is flat on the floor, groaning. She walks over to the fire extinguisher and grabs it with her right hand, swings it back and forth a few times. "Never underestimate an angry mother with children to protect. God, if you exist, forgive me." It's brought in an overhead arc onto the same spot she'd aimed for previously. This time the noise is sickeningly bone crunching and not hers. "Now I'm going to check you're really human and not another fucking copy."

Fire extinguisher dropped on the floor she goes to the bed and picks up the other scalpel. It's not a pleasant job.


	44. Chapter 44

Her English lessons and Lady Macbeth come to mind as she washes her hands clean, "Out, damned spot! out, I say!"

Whatever she'd been given to wipe some short term memory was something she could do with. Her head was clearing but she could picture the nightmare scenes as clear as day. That little bit of exertion had drained her. Feeling exhausted she wheels the bed into the corridor and closes the door behind her. It's not comfortable but better than the floor. Sleep takes her again.

The door to her recovery room opens and Hobb steps out. She opens her eyes to see the gory vision.

"Do you mind?" he asks, meters of intestines in his hands, "I much preferred them on the inside!" His cut to the face had opened up, there was metal not bone.

"You can't.."

"Oh I'm very much real. You're awake."

"A metal synth skull and humans guts? I don't think so!"

"If you're dreaming and in control why don't you wake up?"

"I.. I.."

"You can't can you? Because this is no dream. I'm a synth wearing the skin of my former body. Like George but better. Like a terminator in the movies Toby and Danny love so much. Did you not notice the thick scar running down the back of my head and neck?"

"There wasn't a scar!"

"There is, you just weren't looking properly."

"YOU NO LONGER EXIST! YOU'RE DEAD!"

He laughs, "Ha! You got me there. I am indeed dead, broken neck and bled out on the floor in the next room. But I will live forever. IN YOUR HEAD! Every time you close your eyes to sleep, I'll be there!" he laughs like Anita, very robotic and repetitive, but with a horrid evil tone.

A shudder wake was an understatement. "Frigging hell imagination, pack it in! I'll need my own frigging PTSD treatment if this keeps up!"


	45. Chapter 45

She gets up and slowly heads back to the supplies room, her steps a bit wobbly. The lid is pulled off the bin and it's tipped over. Canine pain killers? Fuckers! On reflection she was grateful she'd been stitched up and not left to bleed out on the operating table. Operating table? Where was it? She finds a stairwell, accepts the distraction and explores the mostly empty space on the upper floor. There were boxes of dry animal feed, a few wire crates used to transport animals, a broken chair, wires where a phone socket used to be and little else. Back downstairs the other rooms are checked and she finds the small operating room, a waste bin with other rubbish. Maybe they'd not used canine products after all. She sits and reads a ripped cardboard box, turns and sees another unopened one on the counter. The back of her hand is pinched, the faintest hint of pain, but only just. Reading the paper inside the box reveals the answer to a question that had been nagging her. "May cause memory loss."

She grabs the bottle and some syringes for later. Back in the supplies room she finds some bandage, sits and puts her fingers between her knees. Pushing them together tight and pulling from her shoulder she gets the wrist dead straight and wraps it up as best she can.

Now what?

Escape.

From where to where and how? The car. Maybe he had a phone charging cable in there. She returns to the room and rifles through his pockets. Where the fuck were his keys?


	46. Chapter 46

His phone was at two percent. Who to call? What was Leo's number? Smart phones, dumb humans. She'd keyed it into her phone then promptly forgotten it. Fuck.

E.T phone home! The one landline she'd learnt by heart at a very young age is tapped in and the call button pressed. It rings and rings, goes to voicemail, her fathers attempt at humour. "You've reached the Hawkins, please leave a message, we might remember to check it in about three months time."

She rolls her eyes, "Frigging hell universe, stop dicking around!" she calls again. And again. A forth time it's answered, the voice sounds half asleep, "Hello?"

"Knob Cock! You wouldn't believe how happy I am to hear your voice!"

There's silence.

"Toby?" she looks at the now dead phone. "You've got to be fucking joking!"

The next twenty minutes are spent looking for her own clothes and phone, Hobbs keys or a charger for an old Nokia. He'd locked them both in, hidden the keys somewhere. "I can't have been brought here naked surely, so where the frig are my things?"

Every room had been checked, there was no sign of an incinerator, nothing that hinted as to where her things were. Hobb dead, his Nokia dead, her smartphone missing, what next? Doh! What an idiot. Land lines! She walks to the phone on the wall and lifts the receiver. No dial tone. "Figures!"


	47. Chapter 47

Every room needs to be checked again slowly and systematically. She finds the loaf of bread and cheese, makes another sandwich, it's eaten quickly. She makes another and puts it on a paper plate. Feeling the temperature's dropped she goes looking for something to keep warm. She could pull Hobb's jacket off him but doesn't want to return to that room. The one room she hadn't checked fully was the one with animals recovering. She does a one eighty and heads there.

"How long have they left you here?" she realises she has no sense of smell, probably just as well from the state of the animals and their blankets. At the far end of the room is a food store and very large sink, she assumes what they use to bath the animals. She squats down, looks at the dogs. They both look her in the eyes and whine. "How long is it since you've been fed?" the dogs just give her a sad look. "It does my look like I'm going anywhere at the moment. Bath time."


	48. Chapter 48

Getting each dog up into the sink would be a challenge. She pulls up the pin to the cage door, "Come on, you're first." What looked like a medium sized dog was mainly fur. "You poor thing! Whoever shut this place down and left you deserves all the bad karma that comes their way!"

The animal is easy to lift even when she avoids using her bad hand, using only her forearm. Ten minutes later the dog is using what little energy it had left to shake all the water off. Mattie gets a soaking. "Easy! I've nothing to change into!"

Mattie finds a bowl and some food and sets it down in the corner. While the first is eating she bathes the second. It's quite appreciative and keeps trying to lick her face. "I'm wet enough thanks!"

The cats were cleaner, had been careful to do their business in one corner of their cage and sleep as far away from it as possible. She sets three bowls up at the sink edge and finds some food. The third of the cats hisses at her when the cage door is opened. "Oi! I'm trying to help you!" she brings a bowl over and places it in the cage. The dirty blankets are scrunched up and dropped in a bin. In a narrow cabinet she finds clean ones. As she's getting a blanket into the hissy cats cage there's a meow. The first of the cats to be fed was standing in the doorway.

"Meow."

"What is it?"

"Meow." the cat turns and walks away.

Mattie returns to sorting out the three cages.

"Meow. Meow."

Mattie turns to see the cat had returned to the doorway, now joined by the second. Both looked at her then turned and walked. She watches them disappear from view. "Bye then. I'll assume that was a thanks for all the fish." She smiles to herself. The more she'd got to know about the author Douglas Neil Adams from Max and Toby the more he sounded like someone she'd enjoy the company of. Sadly he'd died years ago. "Pop back whenever you want guys!"

Mattie finishes with the blankets just in case they wanted somewhere warm and cozy to sleep. The cages were a bit high up, she drags a box in front so they can do the jump in stages.

Mattie takes off the gown and hangs it up to dry out, wraps a number of blankets around herself. She spins and laughs, "What would Mia make of this I wonder, not exactly London Fashion Week material am I?"

Hissy cat brushes past her legs and purrs.

"Feeling a bit more sociable now are you Hissy?"

They sit together for a while, the cat now loving the attention it was getting. It was having a good calming effect on Mattie, she still felt drained but nowhere near as stressed out.

She gave it a good rub under the chin which it really seamed to enjoy. "Good job you're not a Persona cat, that would have powered you down." the comment makes her think of the Elsters and Leo.


	49. Chapter 49

She needed to get a message to them. No phone, how about PC, send something via Headcrack? There had been some PC bits here and there, disconnected and discarded. They'd looked a mess, vandalised, maybe she could get enough parts to get a system going? The old BT Broadband router she'd seen had all of it's lights on. Hang on. Surely that meant there was a working phone line? That proved to be a waste of time. The line might have been working, but most of the phones were not in a fit condition to plug into the ADSL filter. The cords unclipped from two and plugged into the handset that looked okay didn't give any satisfaction. The PC bases were checked, every one of them had a missing hard drive. "Primary boot device not found, F2 to enter setup." Bastards. Missing a hard drive they were useless. No way to jumpstart. There was a Linux Live CD Image on a USB stick on her key ring, if it could be found.

Mattie feels a paw on her leg. The first of the dogs she'd bathed is trying to say something. "Still hungry?" she leads it to the recovery room and gets more food, puts it in the bowl. The dog ignores it. It wines and puts it's head to one side. Mattie laughs. "Don't go all Teeny on me!" it walks up to her and sniffs her belly, whines again. "Yes, the bastards cut me open. I pong a bit don't I?" she looks at the large sink. "Why not, it's not as if anyone's going to walk in anytime soon and see me."

She's about to climb in when she has a thought, how will she dry herself properly, she'd already got a bit of a chill before finding the blankets. She heads to the small toilet room and looks at the hand dryer mounted low near the sink. A Dyson Airblade 4. It's on a plasterboard, a set of small holes above it where something had been ripped off the wall. She climbs onto the toilet, turns and pushes it sideways with both feet, her back against the wall. It comes away with ease. She'd seen something resembling a screw driver in one of the draws. She fetches it and a thick plastic bag to hold it in, not wanting to electrocute herself. With the cable from the wall joined to one of the PC mains leads she has a makeshift body and hair dryer.

The bath in the large sink feels wonderful. "Thank the electricity and gas suppliers for not cutting the building's services just yet eh boy?"

It ambles towards the door, stops for a moment to see her then continues.

Mattie gets dry with the Dyson and wraps herself up in fresh blankets.

The dog returns, looks at her and walks out. Mattie follows, now curious. It walks to the wall where two cats are waiting and scratches the floor, whines.

"What's up boy?"

The dog starts scratching the floor with both paws as if trying to dig. With the white-board and other things fixed to it Mattie hadn't realised it was a door when doing her room audit. The handle is tried, it's locked. The dog gets onto it's hind legs, rests against the door and barks. The second dog joins them, gets low and sniffs at the gap under the door, starts yapping. "What can you smell girl?"

"Yap yap!"

"Yap yap? I don't speak dog. Sorry!"

Both dogs start howling at the door. Then suddenly they stop.


	50. Chapter 50

There's a baby's cry.

"Oh my God!" tears start to flood down Mattie's face. Where the hell were all the keys! She stops to think. She'd open several draws of surgical instruments when going for the screwdriver, some tools were large and had looked quite nasty. What they were used for she had no idea, but a couple were an ideal shape. Two fast walks later she was hacking away at the door frame, exposing the catch. A second instrument and a lot of pulling gets the gap between door and frame wide enough for the door catch to pop. The door is pulled open to reveal a room with gentle blue light, far warmer than the rest of the building.

In two cribs were her babies.

"Mummy's here!" if the time she'd been on the floor of Toby's bedroom crying her eyes out had been a river of unhappy tears this was a Niagara of joy. She checks the clip boards hanging at the end of each crib and smiles.

On one side of the room is a large packet of SMA, what looks like Mia's Eat Me cakes but in a different shape and a large blender. The sort you'd expect to see in Starbucks. On the floor in a plastic storage box is a massive pack of disposable nappies, wipes and cream.

The twins make gurgling noises and raise their left arms, make a touch and swipe motion.

"Oh. My. God!"

She gets much closer and takes a good look. No DNA of hers, a surrogate? What a load of bollocks! If these two cute little bundles of joy were not mini versions of her and Leo she'd eat a billion hats. Her mothers instinct told her that Hobb had been telling her a pack of lies, trying to get her to believe she'd been used, that she had no future part to play, no reason to fight or have any will to live. She looks down at the animals, "To think I was planning to escape from this place alone. What a gigantic mistake that would have been." She squats down and pets the two dogs, "Thank you."

She looks at the nappies, had there been a second person about? Maybe the car had been used to drop them somewhere?

How he'd known about Honey Bunny, the cufflinks and all the other details she wasn't sure, suspected that a thorough sweep of the house would reveal bugs. Phone hacks too.

"Have you seen Mummy's things?"

They both turn their heads to their right and gurgle.

"Awesome! I can't wait until you can talk, we'll have so much fun!" over to the left on a counter top is a neatly folded pile of clothes with her handbag and phone. On the floor is all the luggage she'd been waiting with. "Fricking double awesome! Mummy's got some things for you in that case." remembering her flight she looks at the twins. "I wonder."

She gets her phone, still thirty percent battery. And the charger in a case. Great! She fires up an app and gets watching. Ten minutes later she shows the twins some signs, all jumbled up and with a few random words. "No idea if you understood any of that. But I know you're smart, Hobb reckoned you had IQs in triple digits already! Mummy bunny really loves you."

The twins turn to see each other, their expressions change, look mildly serious.

"Are you talking to each other? Do you have something like mummy and daddy's head bump?"

They turn to face her and smile with a heart melting smile only babies can achieve. They move their arms in a perfectly synchronised way.

"Oh. My. God!"

The twins had just signed 'Love you mummy!' Their hand shapes were rubbish but given their chubby little fingers hadn't done much of anything yet this was to be expected. Anyone that knew BSL would have been crying with joy at the sight, it was undeniably love you mum.

She goes to pick them up then remembers her wrist. No way did she want to take any risks and drop one. She felt a pain in her chest. She'd need to be feeding soon. "Mummy had a spot of bother and hurt herself. And if she'd been patient wouldn't have needed to rip stitches. Let Mummy Bunny make a call." The dogs nuzzle up against her, she looks down to see all five animals were now at her feet. "You lot are so coming home with me!"


	51. Chapter 51

The phone rings, "Mattie! Where the hell are you!"

"Hi Mum, I don't know. I'm locked in a vets somewhere. It doesn't look to have been operating for a while. I'm with some starved animals that have been abandoned. I can't find any headed paper or letters to say where it is and can't get 3G or GPS working." she hears her mother opening doors and running, her heavier breathing on the phone. "Mum, where are you?"

"One second."

"Mum?"

"Leo, get dressed! It's Mattie! She's on the phone!"

"Mattie!?"

"Leo! Frigging hell hearing your voice is good!", more tears of joy flow, "Give me a minute, I'll call you back!" she hangs up and races to the router, pulls it's WiFi password tag off the back and races back. She keys the details into her phone and pushes the two cribs apart. Getting between them and sitting on the floor brings some pain. The two cribs are pulled back close, her head at their level. She dials again, a video call, holds the phone high and looks up.

"Hi! We've been up for a while since Toby came yelling."

"Say hello to the kids! We have a boy and a girl!"

"Hi Kids!"

The babies gurgle and bring a hand up to their faces.

Tears are running down Leo's face, "Laura, come see!"

A moment later Leo has his arm around his mother in law and they're both shedding tears of joy. "They're adorable!"

"What do you expect with such hot parents?"

Leo chuckles, "Nothing less than perfection Doctor Elster-Hawkins. Much as I'd like to watch them for hours can you go back to a standard call? I'll phone Pete and see if he can get one of his friends in the UK to start a trace, work out which cell tower you're by?"

"Sure. And when you find it can you get Fred and Gesha out with the lorry, I want a badly done cut and shut C section redone before it heals properly."

"I'll wake them, call Danny's father, let them get things prepared."

Her mother peers closer at the screen, "What are you wearing? It looks like a dogs blanket with those bone patterns on it."

"Er. Yes. I'll explain later. Thanks mum. Calling you back now."

The phone is put on hands free, she leaves it at the edge of one of the cots and gets up, pushes them back together. She closes the door, "No point letting all the nice warm air go."

The first of her cases is opened, the clothes checked for a suitable combination.

"So what's this vets like?"

Now where had the underwear gone? She looks in the direction of the phone, thinking about asking Leo which one he'd packed it in.

"Small. But with operating facilities. Oh. My. God."

"Mattie?"

"I just started looking through the cases, the cats and dogs are all sat around the cribs, all facing inwards."

"Cats and dogs?"

"Yeah. If it wasn't for them I might never have found the twins. No. That's unfair. If it wasn't for them I would NEVER have found them. And I'd probably have just given up on everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Hobb spun a massive lie, trying to get me to abandon hope and family."

"Hobb? But Hobb's long been dead!"

"A synth copy with red fluid, acting out a part."

"Really? That was a hell of a convincing act."

"I know, had me fooled."

"Can you be sure the one you spoke to isn't another copy?"

"I checked that."

"How?"

"You don't want to know."

"I do."

"Remember when Niska bit Scarlett and pulled a wire?"

"Yes?"

"Let's just say I couldn't feel any wires in there."

"How did you do that, he wouldn't have let you do it willingly."

"He was in no state to object."

"What did you do to him?"

"Nuts then neck. Then finished the job with a heavy fire extinguisher. He needed extinguishing."

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"Sorry, that was to Laura, she's just handed me another phone. Give me a few seconds. Hi Pete, sorry to wake you, we need a trace on Mattie's mobile. Yes, she'd been kidnapped. By Hobb. The real one. Yes! Red synth fluid apparently. It must have had detachable teeth too. Had us all fooled. Good point. He must have had them on the payroll too. Yes. No idea. Thanks, yes, her number. Hi Mattie, he's going to make some calls and phone me back. How's your phone power?"

"Twenty six. I'll get the charger out."

"We were hoping for the best, fearing the worst. Four days with no contact we didn't know where to start."

"FOUR DAYS! Shit! No wonder I felt weak. My stomach probably would have given me a lot of pain if it wasn't for the drugs they've given me."

"George and I spent hours at the airport looking, we got the airport police involved. We even got Max over to analyse the CCTV footage. One moment there you were, pop the next you were gone. No noise on the video, nobody standing around you. He must have had all the cameras switched out for ones he could control long ago."

Mattie looks towards where she thinks his body lay, "He said that you'd all been acting out a very long play, that the Elsters were all in on it, hacked code, playing your parts. I don't believe that last bit, but do think he's been working on this for a very long time."

"If he'd had planted bad code we'd have known."

"Would you? Hackers deploy rootkits that go undetected for ages."

"I'm certain. But you can check everyone's code when home if it makes you feel more assured."

She hears a phone ringing.

"Hi Pete, yes, thanks so much! She'll like that, thanks. Sorry again for waking you. Sure! We'd love that!"

There's a pause. "Hi Mummy Bunny. Pete says don't worry about trouble re Hobb. How can you murder someone who's already dead? I've just messaged Danny the postcode. We're all coming. The beamer boys will be giving us a blue light escort. The lorry, DC1, 2 and 3 all in convoy. Anything you'd like us to bring?"

"Not that I can think of. Oh. Tell Fred that I think I've broken my wrist."

"How?"

"When I did my neck smash on Hobb."

"Ouch."

"I didn't feel any pain, just something crack."

"Okay. Danny's replied, the lorry will be on route in five, his Dad's throwing some clothes on, we're all heading down to the cars." she hears him breathing more, moving about. "Shall we go back to video now we know where you are?"

"Sure, why not. What do you say kids?" she looks at the twins and stares.

"Mattie? Everything okay? Why the silence?"

"The twins just signed Love!"

"Really?"

"Yup. I showed them a number of words earlier."

"Awesome!"

"Isn't it just!"

"How do you sign awesome? I don't recall seeing that one?"

"No idea, I'll find out in the morning."

"Mattie!"

"Hi Teeny! How are you?"

"Me? Don't worry about that! How are YOU?"

Mattie chuckles, "More badass than ever!"

"We're on our way! I can see one of the BMWs coming down the road with DC1."

"Cool."

Mia and Laura get in the back either side of Sophie, she turns the camera horizontal and at a distance.

"Hello Mattie!"

"Hi Mia, love the hair!"

"Thank you. Sandra did it for me, you really like it?"

"Love it!"

"Thank you Mattie."

Mattie turns the phone, "There's a couple of little people here that might want to say hello."

"Awww, they're SO CUTE!"

"Gorgeous!"

"What are you going to call them?"

"I don't know yet." there's a flurry of hand movements from the babies. "Hang on guys I've got an idea. Can I call you back in ten minutes?"

"Sure."

"Hi Dad!"

"Hi Matts, how are you feeling?"

"Glad that you're coming for me! I'll call back in a moment."

"Ok, DC2 is saying we'll need about an hour and twenty five minutes to reach you. The Johnson's say Hi, we'd caught them all an hour before their shift was due to finish."

"Cool, speak to you in a moment." She ends the call and brings her signing app up then changes her mind and goes to personal hotspot settings, changes the password to X and enables it. What was she thinking? No 3G. Balls! Plan B. "Now you two, Mummy has the first of two lessons for you. No idea if this will work."

~~~

"Look there's the lorry!"

"I see it Soph, from the blue light on the houses they must have the other car in front."

The lorry indicates and slows, pulls over. Danny's father jumps out and walks towards DC2. "Hi! The lads are saying we should have DC1, 2 and 3 up front, I'll follow behind. I'm up higher, will be able to see over the top of you incase there's a need to brake suddenly. The other BMW will follow behind me. They'll keep an open radio channel so the guys at the back can get a warning to break."

Joe leans towards the open drivers window, "Sounds like a plan. We'll get in front, ask everyone to put their hazard lights on when they're ready to set off."

"Sure." he runs to DC1, explains the plan to Danny.

"Okay Dad, thanks."

At DC3 he finds a puzzled Fred.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I need you to drive DC3 behind DC2. You'll all be in front of the lorry."

"Okay." he winds up the window, "Toby, Holly-Anne, either of you want to drive?"

"We're good back here thanks."

"Ok, Gesha, do you?"

Peggy rests a hand on Fred's shoulder,

"Enjoy your turn at the wheel."

"Thank you. It's quite a vehicle. I can understand why you humans like them so much."

"You're human too Fred. Where it counts."

"Thank you Peggy."

~~~


	52. Chapter 52

Up in DC1 Emily turns to Danny, "How fast are we going?"

"One hundred and twenty."

"What have you been told so far?"

"Not a lot. Mattie's got a badly done C section and broken wrist. Hence the lorry."

"So she's had the babies. I wonder what they look like?"

She sends Mattie a message on their app.

A few seconds later Toby has replied. 'Start a video call from our app to Mattie, then tap the person icon lower right and tap plus, add Gesha then add again picking Dad as they're both sat up front.'

The multi-person video call has them all talking to a very worn out looking Mattie.

"Hi everyone!"

"Hi Mattie!"

"Can Leo hear me?"

"I can."

"You know how we've suspected their pretty bright already?"

"Sure. Like their EDM like their Mum, kick for no, touch for yes?"

"And understand English."

"Yes."

"What if I told you they just picked each others names."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. The girl just pointed to the other twin and signed a name using the BSL alphabet. He returned the favour."

"What! You're having us on!"

"No Dad, straight up serious."

"Bloody hell!" he chuckles, "They're going to need home schooling for a bit, no school around here would cope. What did they pick?"

There's a long pause. "Matthew and Leona"

Joe has a hearty laugh, "Mummy's boy and Daddy's girl. Leo and Leo, Mattie and Matt."


	53. Chapter 53

Mattie spends the waiting time to get dressed, sort out her hair with her electric straightners and curlers. Straight on top and a mass of curls from ear level down. With pain returning she's tempted to inject herself. The thought of losing some good memories along with the bad makes her dismiss the idea, getting dressed takes a lot longer than normal. She had a lovely mirror thanks to the makeup artist team at the shoot. It was about the size of an A4 page with tiny white high brightness LED all around the edge. Thankfully it hadn't been a case of 'Batteries not included'. She'd been given a set of foundation and other makeups that had been colour matched to her skin.

She'd probably looked rather rough when meeting the animals and twins, thanks to the tiredness, wasn't going to do the same with family. Ah. The video calls. That horse had bolted. Never mind, she'd look good for herself if no one else.

Half an hour later she checks the mirror one last time. She stands at the end of the cribs, "Does mummy look okay?"

Both Matthew and Leona give her their yes sign.

"Thanks."

Her phone rings, "We think we've found you. Can you bang on the front door?"

"Sure Tobs. Give me a moment."

"Keep the call open."

"Okay. Kids, Mummy will be right back!"

She moves as fast as possible to the front door, almost goes to bang on it with her bad hand, switches at the last moment.

The letter box is pushed open. "Hi Mattie, can you help us then get far away from the door, the boys are going to rip it out."

"How?"

"Fred's idea. We'll post a tyre arm through the letter box, you'll need to hold it flat against the door, tie the tow ropes to it. They'll then start the cars and tow it out."

"Can't they tie it? I've only got one good wrist."

"Oh, sorry. If you can hold the thing against the door with a knee, I'll feed the first rope, if you loop it around and feed it back I'll tie it from out here. Dad can keep the tension on it while we do the other ropes."

"Why so many? It's only one door?"

"The cars are on deep gravel, rope not long enough to be on tarmac, even if we joined them up."

"Oh. That explains the noises I'd heard. Okay."

"Mattie?"

"Hi Mia!"

"I made you a super shake, it should help get your salts, minerals and energy back up fast."

"Thanks, but .."

"We thought of that." the end of a very long straw is poked through the letterbox.

"Seriously? Can't it wait?"

"Fred wants you as strong as possible as soon as possible before the C section fix, so we'd rather you had it now and let it start helping you."

Two minutes later three ropes are in place and Mattie does a massive burp. "Excuse me!"

"Go to the babies Mattie, we've got this."

"Thanks Dad."

She heads back to the room to find one of the cats in a crib. Not smothering the baby but curled up with it's back to them. She gets a gurgle and a smile.

"Do you like the pussycat?"

Another smile and a gesture.

"The cats were I think the first to try and tell me to come and find you. I just didn't speak meow."

There's a deep contented purring noise. Mattie's shocked a second later when she realises it's come from Matthew not the cat. "Frigging hell! Oops. Shouldn't be using words like that in front of you two but I guess you've heard Mummy use them too much already haven't you?"

The gesture is done again.

"Is that your own sign for yes?"

It's repeated.

"Is Mummy silly?"

There's a pause. Then the simple push and swipe is repeated, only left to right not downwards.

"Is downwards a yes and sideways a no?"

The downwards one is repeated.

"You clever baby bunny. Mummy's really proud of you." she leans over the crib and gives her baby boy the first of what will be many kisses.

There's a splintering noise as the front door gives way, splitting down the middle. Moments later Leo and Toby are inside, "Mattie! Where are you?"

"I'm here!"

They follow the sound of her voice, seconds later they're in the room. "Blimey slap chops, they're gorgeous!"

She wraps her arms around her brother, "Thanks for waking everyone."

"Wouldn't you have done the same?"

"Yeah, most likely."

He hugs her back.

An excited Sophie runs in, "Can I see?"

"Sure, kids, meet Auntie Sophie!"

"Auntie? I'm not old enough to be an auntie?"

"Yes you are Sophie, age has nothing to do with it."

"Oh."

Joe and Laura arrive next, followed shortly after by everyone else.

Laura is bent over one of the cribs, the baby touching her face.

"Happy to be called grandma now then Mum?"

"No, but I'd accept Mum's Mum."

"Mummum."

There's silence in the room. You could hear a pin drop outside the building.

"Did I just hear a first word?"

"Mummum."

"Oh you little darling!" Laura's tears land on the baby and it screws it's face into a funny expression, tries to wipe them. She pulls a tissue from her jeans pocket. "Can I hold her Mattie?"

"Sure, I've not picked either of them up yet, didn't want to risk it with my wrist."

After the babies have been introduced to the whole family Mattie is given the chance to hold them one at a time in her good arm. The babies love it. Matthew had kissed his mother. Sucked might have been a more accurate description but close enough to a kiss. He'd had a good go at saying Mum too. Leona is getting a load of kisses, holding her mothers face with both hands and giggling."

Mattie looks at Peggy, "Great or mummummum?"

Peggy chuckles, "Great thanks, the other option sounds too like nomnomnom."

Sophie giggles.

"What are we taking with us?" asks Fred.

"The cases, I better pack my makeup. You'll find some wire cages upstairs for transporting the animals."

Fred holds out one of the instruments Mattie had used to open the door. "Where did you find this?"

"There's draws of the stuff in the operating room. Loads of supplies if you want to take a quick look."

~~~

Danny opens the doors to DC1 and presses something on the dash. Ellie Golding plays out, "Standing with an army." he gives her a salute and wink. "Ma'am. Your orders please?"

Mattie laughs, "Ouch, the drugs are wearing off. Just keep being the awesome extended family you all are. Thanks."

It was 2:53AM, the lorry and five cars all lighting the building up with their headlights.

Toby joins them with a bit of paper in his hands. "Did you see these on the outside of the front door? The planning permission paperwork says they'll be building a service station here. The vets is scheduled for demolition."

"Really? With all the four services still connected?"

"What do you mean?"

"Gas, electricity, water, broadband."

"Really?"

"Yeah, used them all."

He frowns, "Something doesn't sound right there."

"If Hobb was involved I'm not surprised."

"Guess so. He was covering his tracks. Only now they'll cover him."

"I doubt it, people normally strip a building first, they'd find him."

One of the Johnsons look up at her, then his namesake but doesn't say a word, gets on with helping Fred carry the surgical tools draw unit into the lorry.

Mattie watches as Leo walks up the lorry ramp and puts the last of the crates into the reception room. The dog whimpers.

"It's alright boy, I'm coming too."

The other Johnson turns from watching him and looks at Mattie. "You're certain there's nothing of value left in there, no other animals?"

"All the PC hard drives have been removed, there were only five animals, the two dogs and three cats."

"Good. If you can get in the lorry so Fred and Gesha can prep you. Get the lorry and all the cars about a mile away and wait for me, I'll join you in a moment."

"Why?"

He taps his nose. "Can't say. Heard of plausible deniability?"

Mattie shakes her head, "No?"

"I have."

"Ah, Mrs Hawkins. Best you all go."

"Laura, please. Okay, come on everyone, let's get moving."

Mattie enters the lorry's reception, finds Sophie and Mia holding a twin each, lost in the moment. "How does Auntie Mia feel about her new title?"

Mia looks up and smiles, "If I could I'd look like Nis."

Mattie frowns and turns. In the corner Nis has an arm over Odi's shoulder, a smile and tears running down her cheeks.

"Awww, Auntie Nis, the upgrade's working then!"

"Yes, the tank is almost empty."

Leo offers her a tissue.

"No thanks, I want to feel them, remember this moment just as it is."

~~~

Mattie holds Leo's hand, "These drugs are amazing. I can feel everything Fred and Gesha are doing, just not the pain."

"We would rather have given you a general anaesthetic but you are too weak, it would have been too risky. Thankfully nature gave you several different types of nerves, each respond to a drug targeted at them alone. In theory you could remove the sense of touch and keep pain. Thankfully that is not a scenario most want."

"Not a problem Fred, I'm grateful for your help. I just didn't want to risk a journey home and fall apart. And you're slipping back into old habits."

"I am? How so?"

"You are not you're. I am not I'm."

He leans sideways to be seen over the cloth that's hiding the operation from Mattie. "I am posh." he gives her a wink and warm smile. "You would not have fallen apart as you put it, but it might have torn some of your temporary stitches. You did an okay job for a first attempt Doctor Elster-Hawkins."

"Thanks."

"This is going to take a while. We're doing three levels of stitches, doing a tummy tuck at the same time."

"Three?"

"Self dissolving stitches inside, a second set half way out, then some very very fine stitches at the top before we do a tape up."

"Tape?"

"Like a giant butterfly stitch. The scar will be so tiny it should fade with time."

Mattie stares at the ceiling for a while letting Fred and Gesha get on with their work. "Leo, do you remember when we were all sat in the kitchen and Mia said your siblings had no biological imperative?"

"Of course."

"Could two root codes be merged into a new one?"

"I guess we could write code to do it. Let it work out the character traits to pull from each."

"A caring ninja." she realises she can't feel any movement at her belly. "Fred, is everything okay?"

"Yes Mattie. Gesha and I were just having a quick head bump, exchanging ideas of what a son or daughter might look like."

"You can't pick, the program would have to work that out."

"No designer offspring?"

"No."

He laughs, "Ok Doctor. It is a shame that could not work for Mia and Tim."

"Why not? Leo could use his techniques to derive a root code from Tim, like he did for George, then mix it with Mia's."

Leo laughs, "He might find it a bit weird, having a child that looks mid twenties."

"Why not make a baby synth? Upgrade it's body every year?"

"And do what with the old ones?"

"Um. Yeah. You dream too, not the stuff of sweet dreams. Oh well, it was only a thought."

"It was. But one I'd like to explore."

"Really Fred?"

"A son or daughter our size wouldn't phase me."

Gesha leans past the cloth, "Nor me."

Through the walls of the lorry they hear a massive explosion.

"What the frigging hell was that?"

Leo squeezes her hand, "I think that was Johnson's plausible denial plan going up in flames. Literarily!"

"He blew it up?"

"Probably disconnected the gas main and left the thermostat up at full. The boiler would have been clicking away trying to fire up. As soon as the gas concentration got high enough it would have ignited."

"So there won't be much left of Hobb for anyone to identify?"

"No idea. That would depend on where he was and where the broken gas main was."

They'd never find out, but Johnson had put Hobbs innards back in, done his jacket up and propped him up on the broken chair he'd got from upstairs. Next to the gas main pipe he'd broken just before getting into a sprint. If the main fire didn't burn the body enough the constant flame from the open pipe would finish the job. He'd look like the charred body Hobb had pretended was Fred. Karma wasn't a bitch, she just handed back to those that truly deserved it.

Toby knocks on the door, "Did you hear that!"

"Yes!"

"Danny and I were chatting outside, you should have seen it! Talk about massive explosion!"

Mattie squeezes Leo's hand, "Do you think we can finally have our Happy Ever After?"

"Yeah." he stands and leans over her, gives a kiss, "Let's start it right now."

Laura calls through the door, "Did I see you bring a large pack of nappies out to the cars Leo? Matthew's filled a stinker."

Mattie chuckles, "Back of DC3 Mum, teach Sophie, she can start returning a favour!"

She closes her eyes and sees Hobb. In her mind a hand is raised like Teeny in front of Dean painting, it's waved back and forth as if he were just pixels, wiping him from view. She was done with him, "That drink of Mia's was amazing! I can think so clearly now. I think I've learnt enough about PTSD to self treat. Time to move on and enjoy life."

She feels another warm and tender kiss from Leo, "Lets."


End file.
